The county examination is the first examination for children, and the time is scheduled for late February. Generally speaking, an announcement will be made one month before the county exam, announcing the date of the exam, followed by a series of tedious registration procedures. Fortunately, Rongxuan Academy has always signed up collectively, which saves a lot of trouble for the reference students.
The test shed in Tanggu Town is located next to the county government office, facing south and evenly sized. According to the gentlemen's introduction, there are east and west gates on the south side of the examination room, surrounded by wooden fences. Candidates are lined up in two rows, and they can only enter after a body search. There is a large courtyard when entering Mucha, and there is a main entrance by the courtyard.
After entering the main entrance, there is a compound, where candidates wait for their names to be called. There are three halls on the north side of the compound, where the examiners sit and call the candidates. On the north side are many simple rows of seats, where candidates take their exams.
It's a pity that there is no such thing as visiting the examination room in advance in ancient times, otherwise, Yu Xiaocao really wanted to visit the ancient examination room.
Today is the first session of the county examination. Candidates came to the examination room before dawn and searched their bodies through "searchers". Each candidate has a test basket, which contains the necessities of the test, such as stationery, food, test certificates, etc. The test basket must be carefully inspected to prevent prohibited items from being carried in it.
The examination basket of Rongxuan Academy is prepared by the academy. However, Yu Xiaocao disliked that the food in the college was too monotonous, it was just rice balls, steamed buns and pickles, so she replaced the food in the little brother's test basket with specially baked peanuts, sesame biscuits and jerky. There is also a copper hand stove to warm your hands when it is cold. The special thermal insulation water bag is filled with boiling hot Lingshi water, and is tightly wrapped with a small quilt.
Each exam takes one day, and the weather is still relatively cold at the end of February. Yu Xiaocao hopes that at noon, her younger brother can have a sip of warm water. I heard that many candidates with relatively weak constitutions usually have very good grades, but when it comes to the exam, they do not perform well. The main reason is the weather and food. What's more, he lost his name because he was sick and couldn't survive the five-day exam.
Xiaoshitou waved to his parents and second sister who were taking the exam, and calmly lined up in the queue. Before entering the arena, "Souzi" took a look at his academy-style clothing, and was a little surprised when he checked his test basket. After checking the small quilt, water bag and hand stove several times, he was released. Entered the examination room.
In the courtyard, there were already many students waiting quietly. Although it was still dark at this time, there were a lot of paper light signs in the courtyard, which were easy to see. Xiao Shitou followed behind the students, walked one by one, and entered the venue by roll call.
Candidates stood in the compound, facing the examiners, waiting for the roll call to enter the lobby of the middle hall to pick up the papers, and they had to go through the "singing and protecting" link. Every candidate who takes part in the county examination has a guarantor to prevent cheating. After Xiao Shitou received the test paper, he took his seat according to the seat number on the paper.
After all the candidates have received the test papers, there will be a yamen servant to show the test questions on tour. The yamen servant recognized Xiao Shitou, and deliberately stayed in front of him for two more seconds. Xiao Shitou saw the exam questions, carefully reviewed the questions, and rubbed the ink while thinking. After the ink was polished, he began to answer the questions seriously.
In the early morning of February, the temperature was very low, and the hands and feet of the students who stood in the cold wind for more than an hour became a little stiff. Xiaoshi took out the water bag from the quilt, drank two mouthfuls of warm Lingshi water, and felt warm again. He warmed his hands on the hand stove before he began to write vigorously. With the heat provided by Lingshi water, he didn't feel cold at all, and the words on the answer sheet were the same as usual, without the slightest stiffness.
Today is the first session. The test is two essays in four books and one poem in five-character and six-rhyme test paper. The title, poem, and writing style all have a certain format. The whole volume should not exceed 700 characters. Generally, in the first exam, only those who can write fluently can be admitted. Candidates admitted in the first round will be able to take the second round of the exam. For Xiao Shitou, there is no need to worry about the first exam.
At noon, he stopped writing like a picnic, leisurely eating delicious biscuits, nibbling a few pieces of pork jerky, and drinking a few sips of water before finishing the article in one go. I checked it again carefully, made a slight revision, and transcribed it on the examination paper. After he finished, he looked around and found that most of the candidates were breathing hard on their hands while they were writing quickly.
Today is a bit cloudy and the temperature is lower than the previous few days. Some candidates' faces were pale from the cold, their lips were slightly bruised, and some sneezed and runny noses on the spot, which seemed not very optimistic. Little Shitou was a little surprised, why didn't he feel cold? Could it be that the protective stone given to him by the second sister worked
The little butian stone tied around the neck of the little stone kept rolling his eyes: the master actually lends himself to others casually, isn't it too disrespectful to the god stone? Before thinking of coming here, Yu Xiaocao repeatedly told it to take good care of her younger brother, and said that this is also considered a merit, which is helpful for its cultivation. It reluctantly agreed. To Xiao Shitou, Yu Xiaocao said that this is a protective gem consecrated by the master, which can bless him with a smooth exam.
There are delicious snacks, as well as the sky-filling stone spirit body protection. When the exam is over in the evening, most of the candidates come out with their necks shrunk and trembling, but Xiaoshi is more energetic than when he entered.
As soon as he left the examination room, he saw the second sister who came to pick him up. Like a cannonball, she rushed over with a test basket: "Second sister, what are you cooking for tonight? I want to eat the roast duck from Zhenxiu Restaurant, let's go Buy one and bring it back?"
Sun Runze and Liu Jinye also came out to join the siblings. Hearing that they could eat the roast duck from Zhenxiu Restaurant in the evening, both of them expressed their great anticipation, but they didn't give any hope.
One duck and three meals at Zhenxiu Restaurant are very famous both in Tang Dynasty and in Beijing. Now that the ducks are in short supply, Zhenxiu Restaurant’s roast ducks are only limited to 20 per day, and one is fried to fifty taels, which is still in short supply. The two obviously didn't think Yu Xiaocao was capable of getting roast duck.
Yu Xiaocao took the three little ones home first, and each drank a cup of brown sugar ginger tea to keep warm. The kang was burning hot, Sun Runze and Liu Jinye took off their boots, got into the warm bed, and fell asleep after a while.
Yu Xiaocao entered the back kitchen of Zhenxiu Building through the back door, and when she learned that today's roast ducks were sold out, she rolled up her sleeves and roasted two of them herself. One was sent to the academy by Xiao Shitou to satisfy the dean's greed, and the other was kept for everyone to eat together at night. The sauce was brought back from Zhenxiu Restaurant, and the noodles were made by Yu Xiaocao herself.
Eating delicious duck rolls with noodles and drinking delicious duck bone soup. Sun Runze suddenly felt that he was alive again: "If I can eat such a delicious roast duck, I am willing to take the exam every day."
Liu Jinye yelled at him: "I take the exam every day, and I'm not afraid of being burned!! It's hard to find a roast duck for fifty taels. The food you paid is only enough to buy a duck. In the days to come, you plan to drink Northwest Wind?"
There are generally four to five exams in the county exam, with an interval of two to three days between each exam. It takes more than half a month before and after a county exam!
Fortunately, for more than a month, San Xiaozhi has eaten well and is in good health. After a day of freezing in the cold wind, nothing happened. Before the next exam, Yu Xiaocao made delicious food for the three little ones, fearing that they wouldn't be able to survive the five exams.
Each of the following games will be ranked according to the results of the previous game. In the first round, Xiao Shitou performed relatively stably, without being affected by the cold wind and the atmosphere of the examination room, his results were naturally good. In his second round, his seat was relatively close to the examiner.
An instructor of the Confucianism Department, seeing the cute appearance of the eight-year-old little stone, said with a smile: "Magistrate Zhao, Tanggu Town is full of talents, such a young child has come to take part in the children's examination."
County Magistrate Zhao knew Yu Ke, so he smiled and said, "Look at his clothes, the candidate is from Rongxuan Academy. Since the master of the academy has signed up for him, it means that he is certain. According to his seat, Looks like we played well yesterday."
Tang Gu's master secretary smiled and said: "The examinee looks only seven or eight years old, so he should be the youngest among the examinees, right? Rongxuan Academy really deserves its reputation with such achievements at such a young age!"
Xiao Shitou didn't know that he was being watched by the examiners, and he still wrote down the name of the student number first, and then reviewed the questions in detail like the first day. Today I need to write one of the Four Books and one of the Treatise on Filial Piety. I also have to silently write a section of "Sheng Ren Guang Xun".
Silent writing is Xiao Shitou's strong point. The little guy was already smart, and after drinking Lingshi water for more than two years, his memory was even better, almost to the point where he could never forget it. This is also one of the reasons why Dean Yuan agreed with him to take the Tongsheng Examination.
The four scriptures and the silent writing of the "Sacred Enlightenment and Guangxun", Xiao Shitou is at his fingertips. I only spent more time on the theory of filial piety. Then check the transcript again, and wait for the end. The examiner above saw that he had finished writing very early, and was even more impressed with him.
In the next three rounds, one will test one of the five scriptures, one of the rhyme, one of the five-character and eight-rhyme test poems, and silently write the first two sentences of the "Sheng Ren Guang Xun" in the previous round. The next two scenes are scriptures, parallel prose, poems, songs and so on.
Although the poems, songs, prose and parallel prose were still a bit difficult for Xiao Shitou, he still answered them seriously.
During the exam, Xiao Shitou also noticed that his uncle also passed all five exams. Uncle was under a lot of pressure, although the food he ate was specially prepared by Mrs. Zhang, but he usually didn't eat well, and his body was deficient. The five exams were tantamount to suffering for him. After the last round, he passed out as soon as he left the examination room. Yu Dashan and Zhang Shi, who came to pick him up, forced him to sit down in a nearby small restaurant and drank a bowl of hot soup, and then gradually regained his sanity.
Yu Xiaocao also saw that scene, but due to Zhang's blood-sucking leech-like temperament, she would definitely be bitten if she touched it, so she didn't go up. In the last round, both Sun Runze and Liu Jinye's family members came to take the exam, and Yu Xiaocao only took the younger brother home.
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I am on a business trip today and tomorrow, so I can’t code anymore! I am one of the few saved manuscripts~~~
Thank you, little bird in the sky, for your reward!