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Chapter 401: Time to Catch Fish (Part [-])
There is no poor family in the top class, and no noble family in the lower class. In the past, the noble family monopolized everything, and they had to be recommended, so how could they be officials.

However, today's imperial examination method selects scholars based on talent and learning, and gives everyone an equal opportunity. Scholars are somewhat proud, and everyone present does not think that they have no hope of passing the exam.

A broad avenue is like putting it in front of everyone.

Li Chongjiu saw the excited look in the eyes of the scholars, smiled slightly, and said immediately: "The candidates had to leave the examination room for two days in the county examination. There are 12 assistant examiners, as well as examiners."

"The same examiners first check the papers. After the names of the papers of each scholar are affixed, they will be reviewed and annotated by two fellow examiners. If one of them thinks it is desirable, they will not be dismissed. The qualified papers will be read by four assistant examiners. Ten The papers of famous scholars, these ten people are the last ones who can enter the county government as officials. Finally, I personally read the papers of these ten people to determine the ranking."

All the scholars are convinced by this arrangement, which really puts an end to the disadvantage of choosing scholars based on personal likes and dislikes.

"promise!"

All the scholars bowed their hands together, Li Chongjiu smiled slightly, this is the method of selecting scholars in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and now he is copying it. Although it has been criticized by later generations, it is really advanced for the current era.

All the scholars were all smiling, only Zhou Zhou sneered, and He Xin asked in a low voice, "Brother Zhou, why are you laughing?"

Zhou Zhou said: "This is the emperor's art. If you look at the selection of scholars in the past, scholars will only be grateful to those who recommend them. They are in the middle of a state, but the imperial court has no favor here. But now this power is concentrated in the hands of the chief examiner. , the ten people who will be officials in the future must have the same political views as Li Inspector, and they have to be recorded personally, how can they not be grateful for this."

"The kindness of a scholar is the same as that of a teacher. Isn't this a good way to win people's hearts?"

He Xin suddenly realized, and said: "Brother Zhou is really a good idea."

Zhou Zhou thought for a while, and said: "But this is of great benefit to us humble scholars. Well, the personal recommendation relationship of Li Shishi is equal to his disciples after becoming an official. It can be regarded as having a background, and he is not afraid of being squeezed out by his colleagues. gone."

"Exactly, exactly."

After Li Chongjiu finished explaining the rules of the exam, the scholars immediately entered the arena together.

Before passing through the gate, Zhao Xin happened to enter with Zhou Zhou and He Xin.

Zhao Xin glanced at Zhou Zhou, slowed down and said with a smile, "Brother Zhou, the one who can come out on top in this county test is either me or Ru Er, you dare to bet with me?"

He Xin said from the side: "Brother Zhou, Mo Yan listened to his nonsense. He is trying to disturb you and prevent you from getting a good ranking."

After hearing the words, Zhou Zhou said, "It's okay to say what you want."

Zhao Xin said: "If either of us fails, how about inviting all the classmates to a small banquet in Deyue Tower?"

Mingyue Tower is the most expensive restaurant in Zhuo County. Zhao Xin said that obviously to put pressure on Zhou Zhou.

"Boring." Zhou Zhou sneered.

At this time, a person suddenly passed by and knocked He Xin's test basket.

He Xin was careless, and threw a few cakes in the test basket on the ground. The other party ignored them and stepped on the cakes on purpose.A piece of good yellow Chengcheng wheat cake was immediately printed with a shoe print full of black mud.

"Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean it." The man said so, but his face was full of smiles.

The officials at the side happened to be blocked from sight, so they didn't see this scene.
Seeing this, Zhao Xin laughed, and immediately stepped into the door with big strides.

Zhou Zhou and He Xin glared at each other.

Zhou Zhou helped He Xin pick up the pancakes from the ground. He Xin patted the pancakes, forced a smile and said, "It's all right, it looks like you can still eat it. Brother Zhou, don't get angry because it will affect the county test."

Zhou Zhou's gaze was serious, but he secretly made up his mind.

At present, more than a hundred famous scholars entered their respective examination booths according to the examination cards issued.

The examination shed is transparent on three sides, covered with thatch, and there are government soldiers standing guard on the left and right. Examiners are patrolling, and small officials are supervising, so that the chances of candidates cheating are almost eliminated.

There are also large water tanks in each of the test sheds, which are used by candidates to drink water or put out fires.

Seeing this, Zhou Zhou couldn't help being amazed. He thought that there would be many gaps in the first imperial examination in Youzhou, but he didn't expect that one by one was arranged so meticulously, as if the chief examiner had experience in presiding over many scientific examinations.

How did Zhou Zhou know that these are the rules that Li Chongjiu copied from 1000 years later.

Zhou Zhou entered his No. [-] examination shed. Candidates entered the venue and explained a lot of rules. Afterwards, everything was settled, and it was almost noon when the test papers were due to be distributed.

At this time, many examinees began to cure their hunger. Zhou Zhou also broke half a pancake from the examination basket and put it in his mouth. Thinking of Zhao Xin's companion bullying He Xin just now, he couldn't help being furious.

But then he realized that he hadn't fallen into the villain's tricks, so Zhou Zhou took a deep breath, took the eggs from the test basket and peeled them carefully to calm his emotions.

When one egg was eaten and the test papers were handed out, Zhou Zhou took a deep breath and began to grade the papers while grinding the ink.

Looking at the distribution of the test papers on the high platform, as the chief examiner, Li Chongjiu's intention in writing the questions was so.

The test paper is still in this era, the four books and five classics that scholars must read, the four books are compulsory questions, and the five classics are optional questions. This is the first paper.

In addition, there is astronomy, geography, arithmetic and agricultural knowledge, which is the second paper.

Finally, there is a policy theory, which is the third paper.
The Four Books and Five Classics are simply filling in the blanks, or extending the meaning of classical Chinese texts. This is basic common sense.

The Four Books and the Five Classics are the foundation of Chinese studies, the thoughts of the sages, to be an official you must be able to read, you must not be able to break sentences, you must not be able to understand classical Chinese, these are the basic qualities of officials.

Although Li Chongjiu's rhymes and punctuation have become popular among the people, especially those who love Sinology in Huaihuang and Yuyi Township, are even more enthusiastic about it, but for traditional scholars, they look down on these and think they are even Things that people in Lower Riba are not as good as.

The second paper is also basic common sense. Needless to say, astronomical and geographical advantages, basic arithmetic is not good, and it is also suitable for an official. As for agricultural knowledge, agricultural knowledge is also the basic quality of an official in this agriculture-oriented country.

In Li Chongjiu's intention, the scores on the first and second papers don't matter much, and the most important thing to widen the gap is the policy theory.

Policy theory is inescapable from ancient and modern imperial examinations. In the Han Dynasty, when selecting scholars, there was a policy question. When selecting scholars in the Song Dynasty, it was policy theory. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was stereotyped.

According to the intention of Chinese examiners for thousands of years, the examinations are all similar. If the first two papers are to assess whether you have the ability to be an official, then the basic IQ is normal, and there are people who have undergone some training. Can be qualified.

As for the last paper, it is to test how strong you are as an official.

Standing on the high platform, Li Chongjiu couldn't help feeling a lot of emotion when he watched the scholars rustle and write on the examination room.

Seeking talents for the country is the top priority of the country, needless to say Li Tang, even Li Shimin, a talent reserve of the Tiance Mansion, is now one or two better than himself.

Li Chongjiu sighed deeply about what it means to be thirsty for talents, and couldn't help but think that he was the first to recruit scholars in Huaihuang Town six years ago. At that time, there were more than 8000 people in Huaihuang Town, and there were only 20 people who could write fluently and express their ideas. , which is equivalent to the level of modern middle school students.

Among them, Ji Chuan, Liu Yi, and Zhou Xu, three of them, were scholars in the audience, their talents were on par with them or surpassed them, I don't know how much.

Now this place is the elite of a county's talented people. I have been in Youzhou for two or three years, and I just got this kind of atmosphere. Maybe in the future, among them, they will have their own Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui.

I remember that Ji Chuan told himself back then that the matter of learning from the county is a matter of teaching and fishing, and it takes at least ten years of work.But I didn't expect that from Huaihuang Town to Youzhou, in just five or six years, Li Chongjiu has reached the time to catch fish today.

Li Chongjiu stepped down from the high platform and inspected the examination room. Most of the scholars answered the first and second papers without any hindrance, without any hindrance. Obviously, the level of this examination was much better than those in Huaihuang Town back then.

But when it came to the third paper, many people were stuck here.

The third policy theory is that the examinees can play freely and write their own opinions, but because there is no format standard, it is also the most difficult.

When Li Chongjiu saw this, he knew it in his heart.

On the first day of the exam, at night, officers and soldiers gave each candidate an oil lamp.

Some of the examinees fought at night with the lights on, while others picked up the bedding and went to sleep first, and then answered the questions tomorrow morning.

During the night, the officials dare not be careless. Firstly, this is the time when candidates are most likely to cheat. Second, if the scholars who are tired from the examination, if they fall asleep and knock over the oil lamp, causing a fire in the examination room, then But it would be bad.

The night of fear was passed safely, and the candidates continued to answer the questions the next day.

Li Chongjiu was sitting on a high platform reviewing official documents, but at this moment he saw a candidate come out of the examination booth, hand in the paper directly, and then walk away.

The paper was transferred from the examiner to Lu Chengqing, the deputy examiner. Lu Chengqing came to Li Chongjiu and said, "To Duke Shanggu, this is the earliest examination paper for a scholar."

Li Chongjiu took the paper and glanced at it. The other party's name was Zhou Zhou. There was no Zhou family in Zhuo County, so it seemed that he was not a son of a noble family.

After reading the test paper, Li Chongjiu couldn't help but stood up and asked, "Where is this person?"

Zhou Zhou strode out of the door and returned to the recruiting hall. The shopkeepers he was familiar with and the staff all came forward to salute, and said that Mr. Zhou was very talented, and he must have passed high school this time.

Zhou Zhou returned the salute one by one, but when he returned to the room, he cleaned up and saluted. After packing up, there was a commotion downstairs, obviously other scholars had also passed the exam.

The door of Zhou Zhou's room was opened, and it turned out that He Xin entered.

As soon as He Xin saw Zhou Zhou, he asked, "Brother Zhou, seeing that you handed in your first name, you should be confident in this test, right?"

Zhou Zhou smiled and said without saying a word: "No, Brother He, how did you do in the exam?"

He Xin sighed, and said: "I'm afraid it will be difficult, but you don't have to worry, I have my own arrangements, even if I don't win, Zhou Jijiu will help me get a doctorate in Liangxiang County. How about you brother?"

Zhou Zhou said with a smile, "If I either won the first place in this paper, or failed, there is no third possibility."

(End of this chapter)