Chapter 32 Government Examination
Chapter 32 Government Examination
It was June and the daybreak came very early.
Xu Qing had a good sleep and didn't do anything else.
Since he was reading to relax his mind, he could calm down easily and go to bed early no matter how big the matter was. After eating the breakfast prepared by his aunt, Xu Qing went out directly, and the Guo brothers were waiting for him.
The two brothers sent Xu Qing to the south of the city and stopped.
Because the prefectural school was directly under the jurisdiction of the prefectural government, it was not under the jurisdiction of Qingshui County. As a public official, you cannot enter other jurisdictions at will.
Well, the key is that there are Zhao brothers in the government office.
Normally, no one would care about such things, but when the Zhao brothers see it, they will definitely make a fuss about it.
Xu Qing knew this, so he naturally wouldn't let the Guo brothers follow him to the provincial school.
Xu Qing did not allow other commoners to follow him, but Mi San, who was now the leader of the beggars in Qingshui County and was now Xu Qing's loyal bootlicker, insisted on following him to send Mr. Xu off.
Recently, rumors about Xu Qing have appeared. Mi San took the initiative to share the worries and found beggars and children to spread many dirty rumors about the Zhao family.
He also understands people's hearts.
It’s useless to refute a rumor, so it’s better to spread a more explosive rumor.
Moreover, Zhao Xiong is now a member of the government office, not the current supervisor. If you want to arrest someone, you have to see the face of the county office.
However, this only fermented public opinion at the grassroots level and did not affect the students.
These students were keen on spreading the news about the relationship between Xu Qing and the prefect. There was no other reason other than a conflict of interest. Many of them were sons of gentry, who did not want Xu Qing, who came from a clerk family, to ride on their shoulders.
In the eyes of these people, Xu Qing was cheating.
He is clearly an inferior person adopted by a family of low status, so how can he be considered a good citizen and be able to take part in the imperial examinations!
Xu Qing came to the cordon of the provincial school.
The place was packed with people, and Mi San couldn't squeeze in.
Xu Qing is now a celebrity. Someone recognized him and word spread quickly. Many people knew that it was Xu Qing, the popular case master in Qingshui County, who had arrived.
Zhao Bao was in charge of the maintenance. He looked at the commotion in Xu Qing's direction and shouted, "Don't move. Line up in order."
He spoke as he walked towards Xu Qing.
It turned out that Zhao Bao wanted to take advantage of the commotion of the crowd to do something bad. At this time, he just needed to push Xu Qing down, the crowd would become turbulent, and cause trampling, and Xu Qing would be crippled if not killed.
When Xu Qing saw Zhao Bao coming, he knew that the other party must be up to no good.
He remained calm and composed.
First, there was no black energy in his luck, which meant that Zhao Bao’s strength was not enough to cause him trouble.
Second, he had fought with the Guo brothers before and was extremely confident in his current strength.
Even so, he did not take it lightly.
He slept very well last night and was full of energy. He also had a full meal in the morning and had enough energy.
At this time, he might as well not waste the time of the "absolute state" and activate the state when Zhao Bao is about to approach.
In an instant, the movements of the people around them slowed down several times, and their five senses were greatly enhanced.
This is his reaction improved.
Zhao Bao tried to come over and trip him up.
In Xu Qing's eyes, the other party was full of flaws.
He was like a nimble white crane, moving his feet, pushing aside the people around him, and getting to the side of Zhao Bao. He used his Ming Jin to strike out, and a knee thrust hit Zhao Bao's lower body.
Zhao Bao only heard something explode, screamed in pain, and bent down.
At this time, the crowd pressed forward.
Even though he was wearing official uniform, he was trampled by the dark crowd, his eyes turned black, and he passed out on the spot.
Xu Qing seemed to be carried forward by the crowd, and no one noticed his hidden move.
Even Zhao Bao didn't react at first.
The provincial examination is important.
Although Zhao Bao's affair was discovered by other constables, they had no time to care about it. They simply dragged Zhao Bao, who was unconscious on the ground, foaming at the mouth, and had countless footprints on his body, out and asked a doctor who was waiting for work near the examination room to look after him temporarily.
When we got inside the cordon, a peddler carrying goods was already waiting nearby.
It turns out that there are rules for the provincial examination, and one can only enter if one is dressed neatly.
There would be squeezing incidents during every provincial examination, when someone’s hat and shoes would be squeezed off. This would be an opportunity for these peddlers to make a fortune.
As for how the peddler got in?
They are all relatives of the clerks in the government office, and they rely on this money to get rich every year.
Even if the higher-ups knew about this, they wouldn't care.
Because the students are not real scholars.
More importantly, the officials above also suffered the same hardship in the past, so why should the younger generations not have to suffer from it?
Yan Shan was not far from Xu Qing, looking disheveled.
He spent money to buy back his lost hat and saw Xu Qing.
"Senior Brother Xu... is here." Because Xu Qing was the top scorer in the county exam, Yan Shan had to call Xu Qing "Senior Brother" in formal occasions (when there were many people around) as long as his ranking in the subsequent exams did not exceed his.
This is an unspoken rule.
In private, of course you can say whatever you want.
Xu Qing had said before that he didn't care, so in private, the two of them still addressed each other in a friendly manner, according to their age.
But in this kind of situation, with students who had passed the examination from other counties present, Yan Shan would definitely be criticized for being rude.
People who read books may not be good at external wars, but when it comes to internal fighting, each of them has the potential to become a master.
Xu Qing exchanged greetings with Yan Shan.
Yan Shan did not mention the rumors about Xu Qing.
Although I felt relieved inexplicably after hearing it, it sounded a bit mean when I said it out loud.
However, if Xu Qing was dismissed from the imperial examination, he would definitely speak up for Xu Qing.
How should I put it? Now his friendship with Xu Qing is one in which he hopes Xu Qing's talent will be recognized, but at the same time he doesn't want Xu Qing to fly too high.
Tangled!
The two then entered the examination room and sat very close to each other.
Complete the formalities before the provincial examination.
Xu Qing met Magistrate He for the first time. He was a lean and serious middle-aged man, and people could not help but respect him.
Moreover, unlike the general prefects who were of the fifth rank, because Jiangning Prefecture was a direct-controlled prefecture, the official rank was one level higher. Therefore, Prefect He was of the fourth rank. If he climbed up two more levels, he could reach the third rank, barely entering the ranks of high-ranking officials of the imperial court.
The discipline of the provincial examination was also extremely strict.
No whispering is allowed. If discovered, you will be expelled from the examination room immediately.
Wait until the test questions are issued.
Some candidates immediately looked troubled after seeing the test questions.
It turns out that the name of the exam question was "If the people are well-fed, who is not well-fed?"
This is the current topic regarding reform in the court.
Now the reformists have the upper hand.
Well-informed candidates had already known that the provincial examiner and the provincial examiner were both reformists.
But Magistrate He was a conservative.
If I try to please Prefect He, I will undoubtedly be going against the Education Commissioner. How can I still expect to pass the college entrance examination?
The Inspector of Education is qualified to check the examination papers of the provincial examination, so it is impossible to cheat and get away with it.
You thought it was an exam, but it was actually a test of standing in line.
If you choose to reform, you won't survive today.
If you choose to be conservative, there will be no tomorrow.
Some children of officials are planning to give up the exam.
This question is too difficult, I can’t do it!
As for the many candidates who were unaware of the inside story, they were not worried at all. It was just that they specialized in studying the eight-legged essay and most of them knew nothing about economics, so the insights they could write were very shallow.
This exam question is something that the sons of gentry have an advantage over, but because they know the inside story, they dare not write casually.
Yan Shan naturally had access to information, and he couldn't help but frown.
But Xu Qing has no burden.
The female master has helped him to open up the connection with Magistrate He, so how can he not choose Magistrate He?
As for the issue of education, that is a matter for the future, and there is a chance that it will be resolved.
With the help of his female master, he will always have a chance to make excuses.
Xu Qing looked calm, and entered a state of "absolute concentration". Inspiration surged, and he wrote down the first sentence of the topic:
When the people are prosperous below, the ruler will naturally be prosperous above.
Just this one sentence is already the best solution to this problem in the world today.
There is no other reason. This is an essay for the palace examination that Xu Qing had read in his previous life, and it was written by the third place winner.
With this top-notch breakthrough as a starting point, Xu Qing had an endless supply of inspiration and incorporated modern concepts into his writing.
This was a way for him to make excuses to the reformists later and leave a hidden trick.
However, this is just a foreshadowing. If there is no classic long-winded discussion, it will naturally not be completed. Even if Magistrate He saw it, he couldn't bring it up.
The key is the whole article, which is an outburst of Xu Qing's accumulation over this period of time, and it also breaks the topic of the Tanhua article.
Although this solution does not have the momentum of the top historical solutions such as "an ordinary man can be a teacher for hundreds of generations, and a single word can become a law for the world", it is still amazing enough in the contemporary world.
Prefect He was very energetic, and this time he chose to mark the papers in person.
After Xu Qing finished writing, he did not hand in the paper rashly.
Look at the wind direction.
Xu Qing stood up only after ten people had handed in their papers.
Of these ten, eight were dismissed.
This puts tremendous psychological pressure on the candidates behind.
If Xu Qing doesn't hand in his paper, there's a chance that the class will become a dull occasion.
Yan Shan hesitated and didn't dare to hand in the paper.
Xu Qing came up and rescued Prefect He.
He was a second-class Jinshi, and was a smart and decisive person. He read the papers very quickly.
He Zhifu finished reading the previous candidates' papers in just ten breaths. When it came to Xu Qing's paper, he paused for half a quarter of an hour and finally sighed: "This paper should be the first. Hand in the rest of your papers. I will read them after I leave the examination room."
He also knew that there would definitely be candidates who would not accept the result.
As soon as the exam time was over, the clerk read Xu Qing's article in front of the candidates.
After hearing this, most of the candidates present were disheartened. They knew that Xu Qing's article, if put in the provincial examination, could also compete for the first place. Moreover, the article was generally conservative.
There is no way this article will not get first place.
Moreover, after the clerk finished reading the article, the statue of the Master in the examination room actually began to tremble, and it took a long time for the clerk to stop.
"Wen Jingshengxiang!" some candidates exclaimed, and envied Xu Qing's good luck.
Wen was shocked. Even though the superintendent disliked Xu Qing's position, he did not dare to risk the disapproval of dismissing Xu Qing in the academy examination.
What’s more, Xu Qing was the first to win two prizes in a row!
...
...
On the archway of the examination hall, Xu Qing's female teacher Feng Wu and Magistrate He's concubine Yin Sanniang disguised themselves as yamen runners and watched everything in front of them.
Feng Wu was secretly surprised and whispered, "Sanniang, I asked you for help. I didn't expect you to help so much. The statue is shaking. What kind of trick did you use?"
Sanniang looked strange, and there was a flash of inexplicable fear in her eyes. After a while, she whispered, "I didn't do this."
"what."
...
...
At this moment, the bronze mirror in Xu Qing's body trembled, and a ray of holy white light that was invisible to others rushed in.
Ripples appeared on the bronze mirror, and a new column of content appeared below "Fortune".
(End of this chapter)