In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order.

There was already a long queue outside Taichang Temple.

The imperial examinations in the Song Dynasty were inherited from the Tang Dynasty and were arranged by the Ministry of Rites. They not only borrowed the sites of Taichang Temple, Imperial College and Imperial College, but even mobilized the imperial army to maintain order.

The entire perimeter of Taichang Temple is now filled with posts every three steps and one sentry every five steps. There are also a large number of patrol soldiers patrolling around in neat lines.

When Zhao Jun came, there was no disturbance, because no one knew him. Unless he was holding up the badge of Imperial City Sizhisi everywhere to show off his power, who would know his identity in this era where there are no cameras?

When everyone saw that he had so many servants, including the Gongsheng Army servants with swords, they all guessed which yamen he was from. After all, in Bianliang, Tokyo, apart from His Majesty the Emperor, only the top officials from these families who had served in the Forbidden Army could reluctantly mobilize a few teams of the Forbidden Army.

Therefore, when Zhao Jun came, there was a commotion in the queue. Many people are afraid that the yamen will be arrogant and unreasonable, and they will forcefully jump in line. But fortunately, Zhao Jun didn't do anything. He just stood at the end of the queue silently and obeyed the order very reasonably.

The scholars slowly entered Taichang Temple one after another. When they were about to arrive at Zhao Jun, Di Qing and others handed him bedding, examination baskets and other things, and whispered in his ear: "Xiao Lang, let's go." We can only send it here, Xiaolang, please pay attention to safety in Gongyuan."

Zhao Jun smiled and responded in a low voice: "It's okay, you can go without worries. You have worked hard during this period, go to Cao Xiu to advance fifty guan in Bianliang and relax. The examination room I am in is for the "Book of Filial Piety" test There are only a few people in the examination room, and they are all watched by soldiers from the Imperial City Division."

"That's good."

Di Qing felt relieved and watched Zhao Jun enter Taichang Temple from outside.

After entering Taichang Temple, there was a huge square. The scene inside was a bit unsightly at the moment. A large number of scholars were taken aside and their bedding, examination baskets, and clothes were searched. They even had to take off their clothes and shoes. It was painful. There is no tea left.

Zhao Jun frowned, and Zhou Xin led a group of soldiers over. He bowed his head slightly as a salute, and then whispered: "Zhisi, just follow me over there."

He pointed to a place not far away with slightly fewer people. Although he was in public like everyone else, there were relatively fewer people there. With his back to the wall, he could barely retain a trace of dignity.

"."

Zhao Jun was speechless and had no choice but to follow.

The Confucian scholars were taking off their clothes, the soldiers were checking, and some officials from the Ministry of Etiquette, who were wearing cyan and green, that is, officials between the ninth and sixth grades, were patrolling around the place.

Zhou Xin and others were responsible for inspecting Zhao Jun. They still took off their clothes according to the rules, but unlike other soldiers, the other soldiers spread out and checked the things they carried with them while carefully inspecting the clothes the scholar took off.

On Zhao Jun's side, he quickly checked the clothes first, asked Zhao Jun to take off his clothes and put them on quickly, and then started to check other items.

An official from the Qipin Etiquette Department nearby saw this scene and wondered which yamen this boy belonged to, and he actually allowed the Forbidden Army soldiers to treat him so differently? However, since the inspection was careful, there was no intervention.

The search was over soon, and Zhou Xin and the others took Zhao Jun all the way to the backyard of Taichang Temple. Taichang Temple actually covers a large area, but there are so many Confucian students who come to take exams that they can't handle it, and there aren't that many rooms, so every year the Ministry of Rites invites People from the Ministry of Works helped repair many wooden houses.

As temporary residences, these wooden houses only cover an area of ​​about four square meters. Basically, they have a bed covering an area of ​​two square meters, a table of one square meter, and a toilet in the corner of the wooden wall. Food, drink, and toilet are allowed inside. Feel free to move around.

Zhao Jun chose the "Book of Filial Piety" in his son-in-waiting test, and very few people chose this subject.

Probably because the Song Dynasty was not like the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the middle school students had the power to exempt a certain number of corvees and taxes, and could only exempt themselves from the corvee and taxes. Therefore, if you want to be truly developed, you must pass the Jinshi examination.

Jinshi classics generally do not examine the "Book of Filial Piety", but basically only "Spring and Autumn" and "Book of Rites". The content of these two books itself exceeds 100,000 words, plus the annotations and explanations of the great Confucian scholars of the past dynasties, etc., the number of words Over one million, the exam is extremely difficult.

Therefore, if candidates are going straight for the Jinshi exam at the beginning, they will never learn anything about "The Classic of Filial Piety". The most they can do is memorize "The Classic of Filial Piety" to prevent them from occasionally reading one or two "The Classic of Filial Piety" during the later Jinshi examination. The Mo Jing or the Tie Jing.

Therefore, more than 99% of the candidates will choose "Spring and Autumn" and "Book of Rites" as the first or second examination. Those people are placed in a large examination room and supervised by officials who are responsible for this aspect of the examination. .

Zhao Jun, with the disdainful eyes of many people, was taken to a remote corner of the backyard of Taichang Temple, where people were taking the "Book of Filial Piety" test.

The small examination room also has the advantages of a small examination room. Zhao Jun's position is arranged next to the back wall of Taichang Temple. There is a towering tree next to it. The tree's shade shades the wooden house. Although it is the Mid-Autumn Festival, the weather is not cold. The morning sun shines The scattered water reflected dots in front of Zhao Jun's wooden house.

"Zhisi, we will be standing guard nearby. The soldiers patrolling around are all imperial troops from the Imperial City Division. Every year, the soldiers and horses of the Imperial City Division are recruited by the Ministry of Rites to maintain order in the examination room, so if anything happens to Zhisi, you can give us an order."

Zhou Xin brought Zhao Jun all the way to his seat and said to him respectfully: "It's just that we don't have much authority. In addition to maintaining discipline in the examination room, the most we can do is help the candidates get some water."

"It's okay, you go ahead."

Zhao Jun nodded. He knew that only the examination room and water for the tribute examination were arranged by the venue. There was a quota for water delivery every day. In order to prevent soldiers from being bribed, even the water delivery was monitored by officials at all times. They soldiers really had no authority.

Zhou Xin was ordered to leave, leaving two Imperial City soldiers outside Zhao Jun's wooden house. Every wooden house around was guarded by soldiers, on duty 24 hours a day. There were people patrolling outside all the time, and the guards were very tight.

After they left, Zhao Jun threw his things on the bed. Today was not an exam, so he could only lie on the bed and rest. From time to time, new candidates were brought over outside the wooden house and then arranged in a nearby wooden house. , filled with all kinds of messy sounds.

At this moment, a surprised voice came from outside: "Brother, I didn't expect you to be here too."

Zhao Jun was lying on the bed, turned his head, and saw that the scholar he met in the teahouse was outside the wooden house with a pot in his hand. He smiled and said hello: "You are here too, you... What are you planning to do?”

The scholar pointed to the front and said: "Go get some water. The water supply in Gongyuan is limited every day. If you go late, it will be gone. Brother, will you come with me?"

Zhao Jun saw that the soldiers did not stop him, and that there were many scholars walking around with pots, basins and other utensils, so he took out a kettle from his belongings, got up and left the wooden house, and asked: "Gongyuan Aren’t you giving out water every day? Are you worried about not having any water to drink?”

The scholar smiled and said: "This is your first time to take the tribute examination. The day of locking up the courtyard is when the scholars come in to settle down. The soldiers and officials from the Ministry of Rites are busy with the scholars entering. Who has time to help you?" Fetching water? Besides, it’s not an exam today, so the scholars can move around as they please, but everyone is busy memorizing essays and don’t want to be distracted by talking around.”

"I see."

As Zhao Jun walked with him, he glanced around, and sure enough, he saw that except for the scholars who went to fetch water, most of the scholars stayed in the wooden house and muttered words, and only a few were chatting boringly.

Although the text is memorized, but as the saying goes, it is useless to sharpen your skills in battle. It is also good to deepen your temporary memory. What if you happen to pass the part you memorized during the exam?

"By the way, my name is Song Cai. I wanted to make friends with my brother that day because I saw how impressive he was. I don't know his name yet."

"Sending food? What a good name. My name is Zhao Hanlong."

Upon hearing Song Cai's inquiry, Zhao Jun did not give his real name. After all, no one in Bianliang knew what he looked like, but in recent days, people who were interested basically knew his name, so it was better not to add any extraneous details.

"It turns out to be Brother Hanlong."

Song Cai was quite familiar with it. While thinking about which powerful Zhao family in Bianliang, he said with a smile: "Brother, this is just the first time to participate in the imperial examination. Is it so steady to choose to take the "Book of Filial Piety"?"

"Well, I just read "The Classic of Filial Piety"."

Zhao Jun answered truthfully.

Song Cai's face stiffened, and then he said with a sneer: "Brother Zhao is joking, I only chose the "Book of Filial Piety" because I really had no choice. I didn't fully memorize "Spring and Autumn" and "Book of Rites", so I failed the test twice before. , I have to use the "Book of Filial Piety" to pass the examination, and then I will take the imperial examination after mastering the "Spring and Autumn" and "Book of Rites". How can anyone take the imperial examination after only reading the "Book of Filial Piety"?"

"Isn't it possible? I heard that to answer the test, you only need to study any one of the Seven Classics."

"That's not impossible, it's just that the next Jinshi will try it."

"It's okay, I'll just take the test and have fun."

"."

Song Cai was speechless, this person was really weird.

As they spoke, the two of them had already filled a pot of water at the water receiving point in the backyard of Taichang Temple, and chatted for a while before going back.

Zhao Jun returned to his wooden house and began to close his eyes and think.

Time passed quickly.

At the specified time in the afternoon, all the scholars had entered, and the Gongyuan was officially closed and locked.

The "Book of Filial Piety" examination room had a small number of people and was quite quiet. Only occasionally could there be the sound of bored scholars chatting.

After the courtyard was locked in the afternoon, it became completely quiet, and everyone stayed in the wooden house.

Zhao Jun was so bored that he didn't pay much attention to the imperial examination. It was just a way to deal with Lu Yijian and others so that they would not cause trouble for him behind his back.

So he didn't take it to heart and didn't have much expectations for the test questions. When it got dark, he fell asleep without realizing it.

The next morning, the sound of gongs and drums sounded.

In the Tang Dynasty, the imperial examination took place from the beginning of the third watch to the end of the fifth watch at night, for a total of six hours.

In the Song Dynasty, because there were too many people taking the imperial examinations, the exams at night were too expensive and the court could not afford them, so they changed them to daytime exams.

The imperial examination officially began.

The scholars can only stay in this wooden house, eat, drink and have sex in this room of a few square meters. They can no longer go out until the hospital is opened.

The wooden house doesn't even have a door, so if it rains or the temperature drops, you can only endure it.

Groups of soldiers patrolled back and forth. After about a minute, the examiners from the Ministry of Etiquette began to enter. They brought test papers, and the soldiers behind them came in with a large number of blank papers.

"The tribute examination has begun, the examination room is silent, and now the handout of papers begins!"

As one examiner shouted loudly, the other examiners then entered in an orderly manner and placed the test papers on each examination desk one by one.

The soldier behind divided the two test papers into three pieces of rice paper, and soon Zhao Jun had straw paper and test papers on his desk.

Zhao Jun looked down.

I saw a sentence printed on the two test papers: "Strategies for river management!" "Why Qin can dominate the world."

The first day was for policy and discussion, which were two separate sessions.

The second day was for the interpretation of classics.

The third day was for poetry and songs.

"Plan" asked about the way to manage the Yellow River, and "discussion" was to discuss why the Qin State could unify the six kingdoms.

These two topics were not new.

It was a big topic in all dynasties. Sometimes you were given a question about how to manage a place, and sometimes what strategy should be used if an enemy country invaded. River management often appeared, and it almost became a regular question.

Zhao Jun naturally had ideas about this topic. Even when he wrote "Plan" before, he had written a policy and discussion on the topic of managing the Yellow River, and it was recognized by Wang Zeng.

So he did not hesitate, took the pen and dipped it in ink, and wrote the original policy and discussion in one go without changing much. Anyway, it was all written by himself, and there was no difference from guessing the right topic.

After the correct idea, the pen was naturally flowing, and it didn't take long for him to write a long and fluent policy and discussion on river management.

Then came the discussion.

There is no need to think about it, just put "On the Six Kingdoms" on it.

Because it is too relevant to the topic, and it happens that we have learned it in high school Chinese, so we can memorize it. Even if we forget some of it, we can just fill it in the blanks by ourselves, so there is almost no hesitation.

He wrote quickly on the answer sheet.

In sharp contrast to Zhao Jun, many scholars around him looked distressed.

Although everyone was sitting in the wooden house and couldn't see each other, most of them had something in common: scratching their heads, writing and drawing on straw paper from time to time, and thinking hard.

Zhao Jun had ideas, as if he was standing in the perspective of God. For them, this question was quite difficult.

There was only six hours, and it was more difficult to sort out the ideas of the policy and the theory in just six hours, and then write hundreds or thousands of words. It was more difficult than the college entrance examination.

To give a simple example, it was like when you were in the college entrance examination Chinese, you were asked to write a paper of hundreds or thousands of words about the way to manage the Yellow River and why the Qin State was able to unify in six hours.

You can write randomly, but of course you will get zero points. To get a high score, you must not only follow the writing format of the policy essay, but also write out the reasoning in it. The strategy must be at least theoretically feasible, and the thesis must ensure that it has its own unique views and ideas.

This shows how difficult it is.

And this is just the exam.

Before Fan Zhongyan and Wang Anshi reformed the imperial examination, the exam contents of the exam and the provincial exam in the early Song Dynasty were actually similar, all of which were poetry, songs, classics, and policy essays, but the number of questions and the scope of the exam were different.

The exam was for the Juren, and the provincial exam was for the Jinshi. During the exam for the Juren, the exam content was one poem, one fu, and one essay, one policy essay, ten posts of the main classics, and ten posts of Mo Yi.

When it came to the Jinshi exam, the exam was one poem, one fu, and one essay, five policy essays, ten posts of "The Analects", and ten Mo Yi from the six classics.

Although there are only four more policy essays and the posts and Mo Yi of the Analects and the other six classics, it means that you have to complete four more national-level strategies within six hours and recite more of the other six classics except the main classics.

The difficulty is almost doubled. No wonder a large number of scholars will not take any classics other than "The Analects", "Spring and Autumn Annals" and "Book of Rites" when they take the exam. They need to spend more time on these classics to prepare for the future Jinshi exam.

Zhao Jun had an idea, so he was naturally not worried. It only took about three hours to write "River Control Strategy" and "Six Kingdoms Theory", which added up to more than 1,300 words. It took so long because the brush was slow to write.

After writing, he checked it. After the ink dried, he covered it with straw paper, pressed it with a paperweight, and went back to bed to rest.

Time passed by, and the candidates in the venue were still writing intensively. There were also officials from the Ministry of Rites who patrolled the examination room all the time. Seeing that Zhao Jun had actually laid down, they couldn't help but shake their heads, thinking that he felt that the difficulty was too great and had completely given up.

"Dong Dong Dong Dong!"

As the sound of the thunderous gongs and drums rang out, there were wailing everywhere in an instant.

Then the officials from the Ministry of Rites came with soldiers to collect the papers.

"It's over."

"I'm almost done."

"Let me finish these, please."

"Don't pull me, don't pull me, ah ah ah! Let me finish!"

Most of the candidates put down their pens, and only a few were still writing furiously.

When the officials who came down to collect the papers saw them, they warned and ordered them to stop, and those who didn't listen were taken away from the examination room.

Various panicked shouts broke the previous tranquility, and soon quieted down again.

There were thousands of candidates in Bianliang every year, three examination halls, and the Taichang Temple had about more than a thousand but less than two thousand.

Soldiers and officials had been arranged in each examination hall, and everything was in order. Even if they didn't have time to finish, they had to stop, otherwise they would be expelled from the examination hall and disqualified from the examination.

Zhao Jun handed the test paper to the official who came to collect the papers.

The official had seen Zhao Jun sleeping before. He took the test paper and glanced at it. He was shocked to see that it was filled with policy essays. He looked Zhao Jun up and down, and then left in surprise.

Soon all the papers were collected, but this did not mean that the candidates could move around freely. Almost everyone lay back on the bed with a tired look on their faces, and some were crying loudly.

There were actually many different situations in the examination room. Some were sobbing, some were praying to God, some were pale, and some were numb. Zhao Jun did not care.

Because many people are like this after the college entrance examination, and after entering high school, I can see it once a year.

He lay on the bed with his eyes closed.