My grandmother doesn’t look too old, which is not surprising. After all, people here generally get married early, with many getting married at the age of 13.
My grandmother was about 14 when she married my grandfather Zhang Tufu, and gave birth to my uncle Zhang Jutai when I was 16.
My uncle Zhang Jutai got married at the age of 15 and gave birth to Zhang Yuanming.
In other words, my grandmother is only 48 years old this year, and her family background is not bad, so she does not look old.
During lunch, Butcher Zhang asked Zhang Jutai to take out a jar of wine.
These days, slightly wealthy families will drink wine with meals.
Fang Xiaoyue's body, Fang Mingrui, had never drank alcohol before.
But Butcher Zhang said that Fang Mingrui is now 14 years old, which means he is already an adult. He was not in good health before, but now his face is much rosier, so men should drink.
Fang Xiaoyue did not resist drinking, and even took the initiative to pour wine for her grandfather, uncle and cousin, making her grandfather and uncle smile.
Because in their opinion, their grandson and nephew are scholars of high status, and being able to pour them wine means that their love for him is not in vain.
However, after taking the first sip of wine, Fang Xiaoyue was surprised to find that just one sip of wine improved his physical fitness a lot.
After lunch, Fang Xiaoyue, who was drunk and full, felt that this meal improved her physical fitness better than the two meals at home.
In the next two days, he stayed at his grandfather's house and shared a room with his cousin Zhang Yuanming.
In order not to affect his studies, cousin Zhang Yuanming was not allowed to enter his own room by Zhang Tufu during the day, and could only enter at night when he fell asleep.
This made Zhang Yuanming feel a little aggrieved.
Fang Xiaoyue also felt a little inappropriate, but given Butcher Zhang's prestige in this family, he could not refuse his grandfather's kindness.
Two days passed by in a flash, and Fang Xiaoyue finally raised the Four Books and Five Classics to level 10 before the county exam.
Like poetry and the Four Books, after the Four Books and Five Classics are upgraded to level 10, you will no longer be able to gain experience.
Fang Xiaoyue once tried to use destiny points to upgrade these three skills, but in this world, the platinum-level digitized skill registration form cannot be used.
He could only guess that this situation might change after the county examination.
Early in the morning, before the sun came out, Butcher Zhang and his family got up and got busy.
Grandma and aunt baked more than ten wheat cakes in the kitchen, while men such as Butcher Zhang and Zhang Jutai cheered Fang Xiaoyue on.
Although the county examination is only the initial imperial examination, after passing the examination, you are just a boy student, and the boy student is actually still in white. It is just that only when you become a boy student, you are eligible to participate in the subsequent government examinations, college examinations, and finally be admitted as a scholar.
Therefore, this county examination is also very strict. Books, notes and other things with writing are not allowed to be brought in, and liquids are not allowed to be brought in (this is mainly due to the county examination in a certain year, and a candidate brought wine in.
As a result, the examination room was set on fire, and the county examination had to be terminated, which caused extremely bad effects.), only food could be brought in, etc.
It is precisely because of this that Butcher Zhang's family did not dare to prepare meat dishes for Fang Xiaoyue. They did not even dare to put meat in the wheat cakes because they would have to take exams for two days and one night. Although the weather is getting cooler now, the meat dishes are not so good.
It's likely to go bad.
Once you have diarrhea after eating there, not to mention the impact on your exam status, just the smelly environment will make the candidates extremely desperate.
You must know that the examination room in the examination hall is only a few square meters, so you can imagine the situation of people inside.
After a simple breakfast, Fang Xiaoyue, accompanied by Butcher Zhang and his family, chatted and laughed as they headed to the examination center, where the county examination was held.
When I went out at this time, there were already some oxcarts on the street. These oxcarts were used to transport candidates to the examination hall. Lanterns were hung in front of the oxcarts. This saved Fang Xiaoyue's family the trouble of not having lanterns and smearing their way forward.
.
Of course, there are also many candidates who, like Fang Xiaoyue, are accompanied by their families on foot.
The examination institute was not far from the county government office. When they arrived at the examination institute, Fang Xiaoyue saw groups of county soldiers patrolling back and forth around the examination institute.
These county soldiers are subordinates of the Mining Furnace County Inspection Department. They are wearing leather armor and have long knives hanging on their waists. They look majestic.
Their duties are usually to catch thieves and suppress lawlessness, but at this special moment, the county magistrate has transferred them to guard the examination hall.
At this time, the examination center has not yet opened its doors, and candidates are waiting in line at the outer gate.
Fang Xiaoyue also lined up.
Half an hour later, as the sky became brighter and brighter, the three officials arrived at the entrance of the examination hall, escorted by a group of government officials.
Among them, the leading official is wearing a blue official robe with a blue magpie pattern on it. He is Cui Changshou, the magistrate of Kuangluo County. The remaining two officials are the edict and instruction of Kuangluo County.
In the county examination, the county magistrate is the chief examiner, and the instructor is the deputy examiner.
Seeing the arrival of the county magistrate, the gate of the examination hall was immediately opened. The three officials entered the gate with several government officials, while the remaining government servants were guarding the door.
At this time, candidates began to enter, but the entrance inspection was humiliating.
The government officials responsible for the inspection not only had to open and inspect the packages carried by the candidates, but also the candidates were required to take off their coats and be searched up and down by the government officials in their white undershirts.
Of course, what made Fang Xiaoyue feel cold the most was that the government officials had to check the key parts!
It has to be said that this scene made all the candidates waiting for admission involuntarily lock their backs.
The candidates entered the room one by one, and it was finally Fang Xiaoyue's turn. After bidding farewell to his grandfather's family, he resolutely walked towards the government office with the parcel in hand.
(The five thousand words of detailed description are omitted here.)
After putting on her coat, with goosebumps appearing all over her body, Fang Xiaoyue packed up her parcel and entered the entrance of the examination center.
The gate of the examination hall seemed extremely dark at this time, and the occasional lanterns could not illuminate the road at all.
The entire internal structure of the examination hall is divided into small grids by eight passages.
Each cell is separated by wooden walls and contains a wooden bed, a small stove, a simple desk and a stool.
Fang Xiaoyue's test number was No. 87, and he quickly found the small grid with the 87 wooden sign.
The location of grid No. 87 is not bad, it is far away from the window, which prevents raindrops from falling in and getting the exam papers wet when it rains.
After pushing open the fence door and entering, he first spread the quilt he brought on the wooden bed and lay on it to rest.
This is the experience taught by private school teacher Huang Defeng.
Since many people fail to pass the county examination every year, and new candidates join every year, the number of candidates taking the county examination in Kuangluo County each time is as high as three to four hundred. It is said that one year there were even 600 people!
There were about 360 candidates taking the county examination this time, not too many, but not too few either. The entrance inspection alone took more than an hour.
I don’t know how long it took, but all the candidates entered the examination hall, and the government officials began to deliver charcoal and drinking water to the candidates in each cell.
The drinking water is hot and contains medicinal materials that can ward off evil spirits and avoid wind, which can prevent candidates from getting colds and colds during the exam.
Of course, candidates also need to bring their own gourds, otherwise the examination center will only provide a wooden bowl, which is neither hygienic nor insulated.
After Fang Xiaoyue took a small basin of charcoal, she hurriedly used her gourd to ask the yamen servant to fill it with water, and then expressed her gratitude verbally.
In the examination hall, it is definitely not allowed to express gratitude with money or items. It is cheating. If you are caught, you will be kicked out of the examination hall and banned from reference for life!
No one dares to do this.
If you were caught and detained at the entrance of the hospital before, you would be disqualified from taking the exam and would not be allowed to take the exam for three years.
But if you get caught in the examination hall, it will be a lifetime thing.
After finishing these tasks, the county magistrate with a beautiful beard appeared at the rostrum of the examination hall. After coughing twice, the government officials immediately shouted "powerful" and "quiet", causing the noise in the examination hall to calm down.
At this time, if anyone dares to express his personality, speak loudly, etc., the result will be that he will be kicked out of the examination center immediately and banned from taking the examination for life.
In short, the county magistrate is now not only the examiner, but also the question maker and the Lord of Hell who controls the future of many candidates!
"Today's Holy Emperor attaches great importance to culture and education, and once issued an edict: All things are inferior, only reading is high! Therefore, I hope that all candidates... If anyone dares to cheat, I will definitely punish him severely!"
When talking about the current emperor, Cui Changshou, the county magistrate, bowed his hands toward the capital to show respect for the emperor.
After some admonishment, Cui Changshou immediately announced the start of the county examination.
Then a yamen servant took out a large wooden board with the test questions for this county examination posted on it.
Candidates need to quickly copy the test questions on the draft paper issued.
Of course, there is no need to worry about myopia not being able to see clearly and copying questions, because there will be two government servants carrying a large wooden board slowly walking in the passage, allowing candidates to have sufficient time to copy the questions.
Don't blame them for not printing test papers. The main reason is that the level of the county examination in the imperial examination is too low.
The county magistrate is not willing to spend more money on this.
Although block printing is now available, it still costs a lot of money to hire someone to engrave printing plates.
Copying questions in this way can not only eliminate fraud problems in printing, but also train candidates' sharp eyesight and quick hands. Why not?
After Fang Xiaoyue copied all the test questions on the draft paper, she reviewed the questions first.
Posting scriptures means filling in the blanks, which is easy to do. With his current level of Level 10 in Four Books and Five Classics, it is extremely easy to do a fill-in-the-blanks question.
In fact, according to his view of the difficulty of this sutra-posting, as long as one has reached the fourth level of the Four Books and Five Classics, one can do it correctly.
Because the fourth level of the Four Books and Five Classics can actually memorize the Four Books and Five Classics, although it may be a bit impractical, the question type of fill-in-the-blank questions should not be too simple as long as the upper and lower structures are connected.
So he immediately completed the three sutra-posting questions on the draft paper, and then completed the Mo Yi questions.
As I said before, Mo Yi is a short answer question.
Therefore, it is very simple for Fang Xiaoyue to do it.
As for trying to post poems, Fang Xiaoyue had to think about it carefully.
After all, this test poem is a proposition poem, which actually requires writing a poem praising the imperial court.
However, Fang Xiaoyue's poetry has also reached level 10. Writing this kind of propositional poem just requires a little more brainpower.
In less than an hour, he wrote a test poem on the scratch paper.
However, it was already noon, so Fang Xiaoyue took out a wheat cake, chewed it slowly, and drank a few more sips of water.
After that, he spread out a new piece of draft paper and conceived the four essays on it.
In fact, the requirements for the four writings in the county examination are not high, and the main emphasis is on the scriptures and Mo Yi.
Because the county examination is actually to test whether the candidates have a solid foundation in the Four Books and Five Classics.
If everyone's level of the Four Books and Five Classics is not high, then it will be easy to distinguish between high and low at the stage of copying the scriptures and inkling the meaning.
This makes it easy for the examiners to judge.
But if everyone has a relatively high level of knowledge of the Four Books and Five Classics, and has done correctly in pasting the scriptures and inscribing meanings, then on this basis, they will review the literary talent reflected in the test poems and the literary thoughts revealed in the essays in the Four Books.
This determines the ranking.
By dinner time, Fang Xiaoyue had already written the first draft of the four essays.
However, he was not busy revising at this time. Instead, he ate wheat cakes early, drank water, and after taking care of his physiological hygiene in a small wooden bucket, he lay on the bed and fell asleep.
Because at this time, the sky was gradually getting dark, and if there were no candles lit in the small grid, the contents on the draft paper would not be visible at all.
The Yamen servant had previously distributed two candles to each small grid, which was used at this time.
But if these two candles are used up in advance, you will not be given more.
Fang Xiaoyue slept until the rooster crow.
He opened his eyes and looked at the sky outside. It was still dark at this time, so he did not get up, but continued to fall asleep.
It wasn't until it was bright outside that he slowly got up. After going to the small wooden barrel to solve his physical problems, he sat down at his desk and reviewed and revised the first draft of the four essays he wrote yesterday one by one, and also checked the taboos.
This taboo is an extremely important concern in science.
The so-called avoidance of taboos is to maintain the dignity of the feudal hierarchy. When speaking or writing, the names of emperors or relatives should not be spoken or written directly. They must be replaced with synonyms or similar words to show respect.
The Daze Kingdom has been in existence for more than a hundred years and has gone through five emperors, so there are quite a few taboo words.
In particular, there were several emperors who changed their names after ascending the throne, doubling the number of taboo words.
Once these taboo words are used in scientific examinations and are seen by the examiner, they will be directly degraded without any chance of recovery.
Therefore, when preparing for the exam, the vast majority of students regard taboo words as an important homework to prepare.
Fang Xiaoyue is naturally no exception.
However, before noon, Fang Xiaoyue completed the review and revision of the four letters.
In my own words, one more word makes it cumbersome, and one less word fails to convey the meaning.
In short, this four-calligraphy essay truly reflects Fang Xiaoyue’s level 10 four-calligraphy essay!
Then, after Fang Xiaoyue hastily ate two wheat cakes, she began to copy the contents on the draft paper one by one to the white paper of the official examination paper.