Chapter 229: The End of the Palace Examination

Chapter 229: The End of the Palace Examination

Sun Shan followed the crowd into the examination room, turned around and looked at Sun Boming and his group, and saw that their eyes were full of hope.

I secretly encouraged myself to do well in the exam to make the money I spent on studying worthwhile.

Led by the yamen runners, Sun Shan found the examination room.

It turned out that the examination rooms for the provincial examination were even worse than those for the county examination. They were shabby and not even repaired.

Sun Shan resigned himself to his fate and lit a candle, then wiped it clean with a cloth and swept away the dust to avoid staining the paper.

When everything was ready and it was still dark, Sun Shan closed his eyes and took a nap.

There was no need to worry about oversleeping because the bailiffs would wake you up when the papers were distributed.

The first test was completed perfectly.

The second test was on Mo Yi, which was also completed perfectly.

The third test was on classics and poetry, which obviously could not be said to be a perfect result.

The difficulty of the classics was higher than that of the county examination. The so-called classics meant writing eight-part essays, which not only required parallelism, but also required understanding of its meaning.

After so many years of study, Sun Shan felt that Mr. Hong’s understanding of the classics could not be said to be profound, and some of them were not clearly explained.

Hong Xiucai was a good teacher. If he didn’t understand something, he would just say he didn’t understand it and he wouldn’t talk nonsense.

He would discuss it with Mr. Huang first. If neither of them understood, he would go to the county school to discuss it with someone else.

If the county school still doesn’t understand, then it really doesn’t understand.

Sun Shan was confused about this, so he had to go to the "Jinbangtiming" bookstore to look for answers and clues, and finally write according to his own understanding.

As for whether it is well written or not, he doesn't know.

At this time, there was a question in the classics titled "Li Guangcheng does not know the complexity and simplicity of military management", which required students to write an eight-part essay of 800 words.

To answer this question, you must know who Li Guang and Cheng Buzhi are, what their methods of commanding the army are, what their characteristics are, and who is the winner between the two.

As for who wins, each has his own reasons. It mainly depends on what the examiner thinks.

Wang Bo lamented in "Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng" that "Feng Tang is easy to grow old, but Li Guang is hard to be rewarded." He felt sad that Li Guang did not get a reward.

But the examiner, the prefect, did not think so. He felt that Li Guang was a careless commander, sometimes winning and sometimes losing, and was not stable enough.

If the candidate praises Li Guang, he will not get any points.

But if the prefect appreciates Li Guang's romantic and heroic life, his life is full of ups and downs, full of legendary colors, with victories, defeats, capture, and finally suicide.

On the contrary, he disliked Cheng Buzhi's old-fashioned, conventional nature and lack of surprising strategies and tactics.

If you praise Cheng Buzhi, you will definitely lose points.

Of course, some people will take the middle way, saying that Li Guang and Cheng Buzhi have advantages and disadvantages, and make dialectical analysis and say some irrelevant words.

Don't think you can get the right answer this way. If you meet an examiner who has a clear distinction between likes and dislikes, he will be more angry when he sees an article like this that has no opinion at all than when he sees an article that clearly disagrees with his opinion.

I feel that this kind of person's articles have no opinion at all. If he particularly hates "nice guy" style bras, he might give it the lowest score.

After seeing this topic, Sun Shan finally realized how important it was to understand the examiner's personality, and only by catering to his preferences could he achieve better results.

But it’s too late to say anything now, I can only write according to my own understanding.

So Sun Shan wrote a review to compare the two men's ways of commanding the army, and finally concluded that Cheng Buzhi was better.

After all, grades are the most important assessment criterion.

Cheng Buzhi "guarded the border, fought against the Huns, managed the army well, enforced strict military discipline, and never suffered a defeat", which shows how powerful he was.

After finishing the interpretation of the sutras, it was time to write poetry and prose.

This question was even more difficult. Sun Shan looked at the question carefully, thought about it again and again, racked his brains, first wrote down a poem, then checked the rhyme and tone, revised it again and again, and finally managed to create a passable poem.

As for the literary value of the poem, Sun Shan did not want to know, he only wanted the examiner and the prefect to know.

After writing the poem, I was sweating all over in this April day.

Stupid X~~~XX.......

Only by uttering indescribable words could Sun Shan relieve his inner depression.

Poetry and prose were actually more difficult than classics. Sun Shan was deeply frustrated with his own literary ability and could only pray that the prefect was blind and thought that the poem he wrote could barely reach the passing line so that he would not be deducted points.

Sun Shan checked it again and again, mainly to check whether he had violated any taboos. After checking that everything was correct, he handed in the paper ahead of schedule.

To say it was early was not really that early, as many candidates had already left the examination room, so he was counted as the last one.

During the trip, the examiner and prefect were on patrol. Sun Shan only saw his feet and back. As for his face, he did not dare to peek.

What if the prefect caught him peeking and got displeased, causing him to fail the exam? He would be a fool.

So an exam is just an exam, don’t make trouble.

Sun Shan carried the examination basket and walked out with heavy steps, one footprint at a time.

He was thinking that he had finally gotten to eat the set lunch for the palace examination and finally didn't have to waste money.

The conclusion I came to was that even dogs wouldn't eat the lunch for the provincial examination, it was so disgusting that I really regretted not bringing my own dry food into the examination room like other candidates did.

I would rather eat powdered cakes than eat the "stinky" lunch at the government office.

Fortunately, the lunch was unpalatable, but it was not bad and would not make people sick.

When Sun Shan walked out of the examination room, the first person he saw was still Sun Boming.

At this time, Sun Bomin and Zheng Hongyuan ran over and asked with concern: "Shanzi, you have finished the exam. Are you tired? Go back and rest first."

Zheng Hongyuan looked around and said in distress, "Shanzi has come out, but Hongyuan hasn't come out yet."

Sun Bomin looked at Sun Shan and felt that he was a little depressed, but in good health. He touched his forehead and found that he didn't have a fever, which was a good sign.

He said to Zheng Hongyuan: "Don't worry, Hongyuan will be out soon."

Sun Shan found a place to do it and set up some tents outside the examination room to provide a place for the accompanying family members to rest.

Sun Shan felt a little dizzy when he just finished the test, but now that he had come out and drank a sip of water, he felt better immediately.

In a very good mood, he said, "Second brother-in-law, let's wait patiently. Brother Hongwen will be out soon. Don't worry."

Even if Zheng Hongwen didn't want to come out, he would be forced out because the provincial examination was not far from over.

Sun Shan asked again, "Have Liang Shen and the others come out?"

Sun Bomin nodded and said, "It's all out. One of Mr. Huang's students is still feeling unwell, so Mr. Hong has arranged for a doctor. Oh, how pitiful! He got sick from taking exams."

Sun Bomin looked at Sun Shan carefully again and nodded secretly. Don't be fooled by Shan's thin appearance. He has a strong body.

It’s a pity that Huang Xiucai’s students are so tall and strong, but in the end they are even worse than Shanzi.

Then Sun Bomin said, "After you finish the test, I will ask the doctor to check you out. If there are any problems, I will be able to find them out in advance."

Zheng Hongyuan, who was anxiously standing by, agreed: "Father-in-law, when Hongyuan comes out, we will go back to the Hong family and ask the doctor to come and see him. I won't feel at ease if he doesn't come to see me."

Sun Shan felt good about himself and did not need to see a doctor.

But seeing how worried Sun Boming and second brother-in-law Zheng Hongyuan were, it was better not to argue about it. Just watch it. It would make you feel at ease after watching it.

The three of them waited for a long time, and Zheng Hongwen finally came out of the examination hall.

He staggered out of the examination room door, and Sun Bomin and Zheng Hongyuan immediately ran up to support him.

Sun Shan saw that he looked pale, dejected and depressed.

Sun Shan really wanted to ask: How did you do in the exam?

In the end, no questions were asked. I remember Zheng Hongwen was the same in the last county examination.

Maybe he will be like this every time he takes an exam in the future. This is called exam syndrome.