pdf-ebookys Chapter 104 County Examination
Chapter 104 County Examination
The county magistrate looked serious as he inspected the area.
The county magistrate and his entourage held the examination list and counted the number of candidates. They also checked the registration information of the candidates one by one to see if anyone had impersonated someone else, in order to ensure the fairness of the examination.
Jiang Yue sat upright, calmly waiting for the exam to begin.
At sunrise, with the sound of crisp bells, the test papers were distributed and the exam officially began.
Jiang Yue got the test paper and checked the questions immediately.
The county examination paper is about thirty-three feet long and seven feet two feet wide. In addition to the examination paper, there are also two sheets of plain paper.
Because Jiang Yue had not yet performed the coming-of-age ceremony, she answered questions about coming of age at a young age.
The examination questions include classics, policy questions and poems.
First topic, classics:
Today's teachers groan after the divination, ask too many questions, and make several progress, without caring about the students' safety.
Write out the following content from memory and give unique insights into the existing scriptures.
Next question:
He who exerts his heart knows his nature. He who knows his nature knows Heaven. To preserve his heart and nurture his nature is to serve Heaven. To be consistent in life and death and to cultivate oneself in anticipation of it is to establish destiny.
You are required to expand on this sentence and are not allowed to quote the original content.
The last topic is to compose a poem on the theme of self-rectification.
After reading the questions, Jiang Yue breathed a sigh of relief.
She had already memorized the Four Books and Five Classics, so these three questions were not difficult for her.
Three questions and a whole day were enough for her.
It's just that it's a bit hard to stay in the same place for the whole day.
She ground the ink carefully and wrote the draft on the blank paper.
In the Imperial Examination Hall, some examinees frowned, thinking hard about the answers, while others wrote furiously, as if they knew the questions by heart.
The entire examination room was filled with a tense and focused atmosphere.
Time passed by in a flash, and all the county examinees were fully focused, not daring to slack off in the slightest.
It was just the end of the first month of the lunar year and Jiang Yue's hands and feet were painfully frozen.
There is no choice but to wear light clothes during the exam.
While answering the questions, she rubbed her hands from time to time, put them in her pockets to warm them up, and continued answering the questions.
By noon, when the sun was shining, Jiang Yue finally felt a little warmer and began to add and change the contents of the straw paper stroke by stroke.
Because of the maneuver, the speed of answering questions was also faster.
There were many test papers, so she wrote very neatly to avoid annoying the examiner.
When she felt hungry on the way, she took out the dry food prepared by her grandmother, drank a little of the cold water in the water bag, and then continued to answer the questions.
Of course, I don’t dare drink too much water.
In the afternoon, she moved her numb hands and carefully reviewed the test paper that she had already reviewed three times.
The exam ended before sunset.
As the bell rang, Jiang Yue came out of the examination room and was the first to hand the paper to the county magistrate.
The county magistrate took it and was attracted by her handwriting. He was very curious about what kind of strange article Jiang Yue could come up with.
"Are you done yet?"
Jiang Yue: "Your Excellency, the students have finished their work."
The county magistrate asked the people around him to collect the papers, and he took Jiang Yue's essays and checked them one by one.
At first, I just wanted to see if she had finished answering. After I finished reading it, I couldn't take my eyes off it and started to read it carefully.
As he was reading, he said to Jiang Yue,
"Okay, you can leave now."
At the same time, he made sure that the invigilator was strict and the child did not cheat.
Jiang Yue said goodbye respectfully and on his way out of the Imperial Examination Hall, he kept looking back. The county magistrate was still looking at his test paper.
The county magistrate was reading it with doubt in his mind, wondering if this answer sheet was really written by a child?
Could it be that this child is the son of a family in Chuanshui County? At such a young age, his handwriting is so good. The content of this answer is also the most worthy of careful reading among all the candidates he has met.
After he finished speaking, he just remembered to check the name, and it was a completely unfamiliar name - Jiang Yue!
Taking another look at this person's household registration, he is not from a wealthy family. He is definitely a farmer's family. None of his ancestors for three generations have been officials.
The county magistrate did not believe it and looked at her paper again and again.
"No wonder, he turned out to be Wei Changsheng's student."
As soon as Jiang Yue walked out of the gate of the Imperial Examination Hall, she saw her grandmother standing in the crowd waiting for her, holding clothes.
Liu beside him was also looking around.
She ran towards her grandmother, and before she could say anything, her quilted coat was put on her, and her little body finally felt a little warmer.
"Jiang Yue, this time, I will definitely surpass you." Jiang Yue knew who was talking without looking back.
Before, Ye Chen always had an expression that said he must be the first, but this time, he just wanted to surpass Jiang Yue.
There are so many people taking the Tongsheng examination, and there are many talented people among them. First, he didn't dare to think about it.
"That's not necessarily true!" Jiang Yue was also very confident about her answer.
"Let's wait and see!" Ye Chencan smiled and got into his own carriage.
After waiting for a while, Zhao Tiancheng also came out.
When Liu saw him, she first asked, "Son, how did you do in the exam?"
Whether Zhao Tiancheng is good or bad, I don't want to reply, so I just keep silent.
Only when she and Jiang Yue were walking in front did she ask him, "Xiao Liu, how did you do in the exam?"
"It's okay." After finishing the first exam, Jiang Yue was preparing for the next one.
Zhao Tiancheng smiled when he heard this.
He took the exam twice, and the questions were varied each time, but this time was the one that satisfied him the most.
"Not bad?" Liu sighed softly. She was so young, yet she was bragging.
"Xiao Liu, didn't you see the candidates who took the Tongsheng exam? There were several older men with gray beards. Wait until you have taken the exam a few times before you say such things."
In her opinion, why would an eight-year-old child take the exam to become a student? Isn't it just a waste of money?
It’s better to take it step by step and study hard for two years.
She regretted that she should have let her son consolidate his basics before taking further action.
After all, the family has limited money. If her son fails the exam again this time, she will give up on letting him continue his studies, and will get married and have children, and then find a decent job in the town.
Zhao Tiancheng's heart suddenly turned cold, "Mom, don't say such unlucky words in front of the examinees."
Jiang Yue: "What my aunt said is true, but there are also examples of young people who passed the Tongsheng exam, and there are also some who passed the exam."
Liu Chunfeng was unhappy and said, "We will know the result in a few days."
Based on her son Xiaoliu's previous intelligence, she blindly believed that Xiaoliu would pass the exam, but now that the results have not been announced yet, it is better not to waste her breath.
Whether he passed the exam or not, she didn't expect Xiaoliu to become an official, she just wanted Xiaoliu to have a worry-free life.
Of course, Jiang Yue doesn’t think so. As the gentleman said, without fame and honor, how can she protect her family’s well-being for the rest of their lives?
As the business grows, there will be endless problems.
Especially under such feudal hierarchical oppression, with no one to protect you, it is probably not easy to live a peaceful life.
So, she needs to become stronger.
"Alas." Liu sighed, noticing that the faces of the three people beside her were not very good, so she forced a smile and praised Jiang Yue:
"Pah, pah, pah, look at my mouth. Xiaoliu, you are different from my Tiancheng. You have been gifted since childhood and are very rare."