Chapter 394 Knowing it can't be done and doing it [Break up 7000 words! 】
Edo, Kitamachi Office.
"There are so many people..."
Looking at the scene in front of him, Ogata couldn't help but mumbled in a helpless tone.
At dawn today, Oburo took the "candidate certificate"-like document he had received when he registered at the registration place and rushed to the Kitamachi Office where the participants of the "Gozen Examination" gathered.
Edo is currently the largest city in Japan.
The total population is over one million.
Due to the overpopulation and large area, in order to facilitate the management of this "behemoth-shaped" castle town, Edo established two town governors, the Minami Town Council and the North Town Council.
Historically, Edo once had a "Nakamachi Executive", but the position of Nakamachi Executive was removed not long after it was established.
Ogata and others turned onto an avenue that led directly to the Kitamachi Administrative Office in Edo, and then walked straight along this avenue before arriving at a magnificent mansion.
And this magnificent mansion is the Kitamachi Administrative Office in Edo.
A small open space in front of the Kitamachi Administrative Office was already crowded with densely packed people.
According to Ogata's estimate, nearly a hundred people had gathered in this small open space.
And this number is still slowly increasing.
The people gathered here are, without exception, those who have signed up to participate in the "Imperial Trial".
Some are young and handsome, exuding energy and energy from every part of their body.
Some of them looked old, with some white in their hair and beards.
Some are well-groomed and well-dressed.
Some are slovenly, and their clothes are as dirty as a rag specially used to wipe the toilet floor. What's more, their clothes are in tatters, and they are simply rags.
Most people come on foot.
Of course, a small number of people came directly on horseback or in sedan chairs.
Although the people gathered on this street at this time have thousands of styles, they all have one thing in common. They all have the soul of a samurai on their waist: a sword.
Almost all the people here, whether they look glamorous or dressed in rags, are basically samurai.
Of course there are a few exceptions.
There were also very few people who did not have a knife on their waist.
These people without swords on their waists are either warriors with weird personalities who do not carry swords, or they are ordinary civilians.
The latter is much more likely than the former.
The number of samurai who go out without swords is so small that they can be called "rare animals".
Ogata guessed: These civilians who came to participate in the "Imperial Examination" may just want to take the literary test and try to see if they can get the bonus for the literary test.
After all, it is unlikely that these civilians would come for the subsequent "military test".
Looking at the crowded crowd in front of him, Ogata couldn't help but thought to himself:
It is simply the epitome of the samurai class of this era...
This situation made Ogata unable to help but sigh.
Although there are very few civilians in this small clearing, the vast majority of them are warriors.
The group of samurai gathered in this small clearing at this time seemed to be the epitome of the samurai class in this era.
Although they both have the title of "samurai", the lives they lead are completely different.
Some have fine clothes and fine food, and they have horses and sedans when they travel.
Some of them wore tattered clothes that were even worse than those of ordinary civilians. Except for the sabers on their waists, their appearance was no different from ordinary civilians.
After letting out this small emotion in his heart, Ogata walked to the outermost edge of the crowd and quietly waited for the official start of the literary test.
Accompanying Ogata to the Kitamachi Shrine were Atachi and Makimura.
Ogata didn't want to bother Makimura and sent him to the Kitamachi Office specially.
However, Makimura is a person who likes to join in the fun.
With such excitement to join in, Makimura would naturally not let him go.
Therefore, even though Ogata persuaded him not to come to see him off, Makimura still insisted on following Ogata and Amachi to the Kitamachi Office.
Ogata felt quite helpless towards Makimura's insistence on joining in the fun...
Because the main reason why Ogata doesn't want Makimura to come over is that he wants to be alone with Amachi for a long time...
Makimura and Atachi, who were wearing heavy makeup that even their parents could not recognize as before, looked at everything around them with curious eyes.
The gathering of such a large number of warriors with different styles is a strange sight that is hard to see in ordinary times.
While Makimura looked at everything around him with curious eyes, he also tapped Ogata's shoulder with his hand and asked Ogata:
"Are you confident about this 'literary test'?"
"It's not bad." Ogata smiled.
These days Ogata has been taking time to read the Four Books and Five Classics. He reviewed some chapters that were a little unfamiliar to him, or he had forgotten most of the contents.
The entire content of the literary test is to test 100 fill-in-the-blank questions.
If Ogata is expected to answer all 100 questions correctly, then Ogata has little confidence.
But if we want Ogata to meet the conditions for passing the literary test: answering half of the questions correctly, then Ogata still has some confidence.
Fill-in-the-blank questions are also a test question with a long history.
As early as the Tang Dynasty's imperial examinations, there was a question called "Tie Jing".
And this "posting the scriptures" is a fill-in-the-blank question.
Just as Ogata was silently waiting for the official to take them to the examination room, a familiar voice suddenly came from behind:
"Isn't this Majima Goro-kun?"
As soon as he heard this voice, Ogata's brows immediately furrowed, and then he turned around and looked at the owner of the male voice: a very well-dressed samurai.
This samurai can be considered an old acquaintance of Ogata...
It was the Hatamoto samurai from a prominent family: Takigawa Heiichiro.
The way Takigawa was dressed at this time was the same as the one he saw in Mae Ogata, the place where he signed up for the "Ozen Trial Match" last time: his whole body exuded the aura of wealth.
The warriors of this era often had the family crest of the lord they were attached to tattooed on their clothes.
For example: before Ogata left the feudal clan, the few clothes he had had the family crest of the "Hirose Matsudaira family" tattooed on them.
These clothes were all thrown away by Ogata after he left the feudal clan.
The haori pattern on Takigawa's upper body is also tattooed with the family crest of the lord he is loyal to, and the Tokugawa family crest: three-leaf Aoi pattern.
Not counting the ronin who no longer have loyal lords, there is also a chain of contempt among the samurai.
At the bottom of the chain of contempt are those samurai who are loyal to weak external daimyo.
The samurai who stand at the top of the chain of contempt are those who can wear clothes with three-leaf sunflower patterns.
Takigawa, who was dressed brightly, walked slowly to Ogata.
After Takigawa approached, Ogata's simple dress greatly set off Takigawa's magnificence.
"Gui'an, you're so early." After approaching Ogata, Takigawa said some indifferent words to say hello to Ogata.
"It's nothing." Ogata replied in a calm tone, "I just came here."
"How is it? Are you well prepared for today's literary test?" Takigawa then asked.
"I have read through those Sinology classics several times." Ogata's response was still flat.
"That's good." Takigawa nodded and said in a strange tone, "I look forward to seeing your outstanding performance."
After saying this in a strange tone, Takigawa did not say another word to Ogata, bypassed Ogata, and walked in another direction away from Ogata.
As soon as Takigawa finished speaking, Ogata's brows wrinkled slightly.
Takigawa's words just now were said in a very strange tone, so his words had a strange and sinister tone from beginning to end.
However, Ogata's brows relaxed after frowning slightly for a while.
Ogata had never had a good impression of Takigawa, so he didn't even say a word to him, and didn't bother to pay attention to the weird words Takigawa just said.
However, Ogata can ignore Takigawa, which does not mean that others can also ignore him.
"What..." Amachi cast his displeased gaze on Takigawa, "Who is that guy? Why does he sound so ugly when he speaks..."
In addition to Atachi, Makimura was also looking at Takigawa's back as he was slowly leaving with a displeased look on his face.
Makimura had accompanied Ogata to the registration place for the "Gozen Trial Match" before, so he knew Takigawa.
But Atachi doesn’t recognize Takigawa.
In order to prevent Amachi and Makimura from causing unnecessary trouble, Ogata hurriedly said:
"Who is that guy? I'll explain it to you later."
"Don't worry about that guy. Just think of that guy as that annoying fly that just screams 'hum'."
"There is no need to cause trouble and waste time because of this guy."
Hearing what Ogata said, Atachi and Makimura withdrew their displeased gazes from Takigawa's back.
After briefly introducing who Takikawa was to Atachi, Ogata continued to wait quietly for the literary test to begin.
After waiting for an unknown amount of time, a group of people dressed as officials finally walked out of the prison.
After these people dressed as officials walked out of the prison, the crowd gathered in the small open space immediately became more noisy.
Through conversations with people around him, Ogata learned that the leader of this group of officials who came out of the Kitamachi Sheriff's Office was none other than the current Kitamachi Priest of Edo: Nagase Shogo.
As soon as Nagase, the leader of Kitamachi, arrived, he loudly announced to everyone that the literary test was about to begin, asking everyone to be quiet.
Nagase has a loud voice, and his voice can perfectly cover every corner of this small open space.
After hearing Nagase ask them to be quiet, the originally noisy small open space slowly became quiet.
The people standing outside watching the excitement also lowered their voices.
After letting the open space quiet down, Nagase cleared his throat and then announced the next process to everyone.
Nagase explained a lot of complicated procedures.
After eliminating the official words and clichés, and streamlining the remaining parts, the main content is: Later, they will call their names one by one, and the person whose name is called will go out and walk to the person who calls their name.
The officials will then take them to the place where the literary test will be held.
According to Nagase, because similar activities have never been held before, there is no place specifically designed for a large number of people to take exams.
In order to solve the problem of examination venues, the shogunate funded and rented several larger teahouses adjacent to the Kitamachi Executive Office.
Ogata and the others will be taken to these teahouses in batches later, and they will take literary tests in these teahouses.
Each person will be taken to a separate room in the teahouse for the exam.
The exam lasted until noon.
Ogata was not surprised that the shogunate actually rented several teahouses as a venue for the literary examination.
After all, there was no examination culture in Japan during the Edo period, and no examination activities had ever been held before.
In this situation where there is no such place that can accommodate a large number of people to take exams, renting a tea house with a large number of independent compartments is the best choice.
After briefly explaining to everyone the process of conducting the literary test, the group of officials who had just followed Nagase out of the Kitamachi Office dispersed and began to shout the names of everyone who participated in the "Gozen Examination"
name.
After a while, Oconon heard an official not far away shouting "Mashima Goro".
"Then I'll leave first." Ogata smiled at Atachi and Makimura beside him, "See you in the afternoon."
"Oh!" Makimura patted Ogata's shoulder hard, "I'm waiting for your good news!"
"I wish you good luck in martial arts!" Atachi cheered loudly to Ogata.
"It's 'prosperous cultural fortune'." After correcting what Omachi had just said in a half-joking tone, Ogata quickly walked towards the official who just called "Mashima Goro".
After walking up to the official and showing him the "candidate certificate"-like document that he had gotten from the official at the "registration place", the official nodded and then said:
Fang waited for a while.
Each of these officials was in charge of a group of candidates participating in the "Imperial Examination". After counting the candidates they were responsible for, they took these candidates to the various teahouses where the literary examination was held.
After waiting for a while, the official in charge of Ogata finally counted all the candidates in his charge.
This official was quite lucky. All the candidates he was responsible for, including Ogata, were present, and no one was absent.
After counting all the candidates in his charge, the official led Ogata and others in his charge and strode towards the teahouse where Ogata and others were conducting the literary test.
Following this official, when he walked to a teahouse not far from the Kitamachi Office, Ogata suddenly found four people dressed as government officials standing in front of the teahouse.
These four officers all had ten hands on their waists, holding thorns in their hands.
Seeing Ogata and others arriving, these four officers immediately told Ogata and others in a stern tone that they wanted to check whether they had any cheating equipment on them.
Only those who pass the inspection can enter.
Hearing the words of these four officials, Ogata couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.
Ogata was neither surprised nor surprised that there was an "anti-cheating check".
What didn't surprise Ogata was that it was normal for candidates to check whether they had any cheating equipment before entering the examination room.
Ogata was surprised that in Edo Japan, where examination culture was almost zero, the shogunate officials actually knew how to prevent cheating.
Everyone will be taken to a small room in the tea house and then undergo a physical examination.
Check that you are not carrying anything strange, and check that there are no problems with your clothes.
Under the inspection of the officers, two problematic guys were actually caught.
One of these two people had the contents of the Four Books and Five Classics written in tiny characters on the inside of his kimono.
Another person went even further and put a "cheat sheet" filled with the contents of the Four Books and Five Classics into the middle of his clothes.
These two guys who were caught in the act were tied up immediately.
According to the officials, anyone who cheats or plans to cheat will be sent to prison for a period of time.
Soon, it was Ogata's turn to be examined for cheating.
Ogata had no intention of cheating, so Ogata passed the inspection quickly.
When walking out of this room used to check for cheating, Ogata couldn't help but have a strange expression on his face, and sighed in his heart:
Still too tender...
In Ogata's eyes, these methods used by officials to check cheating are still a bit too young. They just check the clothes and body.
In ancient China, the methods used to check whether imperial examination candidates were involved in cheating were considered a profession.
Because various cheating methods are emerging one after another among some imperial examination candidates, the government's methods of checking cheating have also been forced to develop rapidly.
However, the methods used by these officials to check for cheating are not mature enough, and Ogata understands this very well.
After all, similar activities have never been carried out before, and it must be the first time for these officials to check for cheating. It is pretty good to be able to do this.
After successfully passing the cheating check, Ogata was taken to the second floor of the tea house and entered a medium-sized cubicle.
A table has been set up in this compartment.
The desk is fully equipped with pens, ink, and inkstones, as well as a teapot and teacup.
It's a pity that what this teapot pours out is not tea, but ordinary water.
Ogata sat cross-legged in front of the table, then took off the sword from his waist, placed it on the tatami on the right, and then waited silently for the official start of the literary test.
While Ogata was waiting for the official start of the literary test, one after another others were brought to the second floor of the tea house and then taken into different compartments.
After waiting until Ogata became a little impatient, an official finally stood in the corridor outside the cubicle and announced to Ogata and others that the literary test had begun, and those who received the test papers could start answering immediately.
Then, two officers each held a large stack of examination papers, walked into each compartment one by one, and handed the examination papers to everyone in each compartment.
After receiving the examination paper from the official who entered his room, Oubei immediately flipped through it quickly.
The exam paper is full of fill-in-the-blank questions.
The fill-in-the-blank questions are lined up one after another and look densely packed, which is a bit scary at first glance.
100 fill-in-the-blank questions...it's quite tiring to answer them one by one.
Ogata, who was not in a hurry to answer immediately, looked at the examination paper in his hand.
Because there are too many questions, there are three exam papers.
When he turned to the last examination paper, Ogata's pupils shrank slightly.
"How is this going……"
Looking at the last part of the examination paper, Ogata couldn't help but murmured in a low voice at a volume that only he could hear clearly, his tone full of astonishment.
At the end of the exam paper, there is another question.
This question is not a fill-in-the-blank question.
The words used in the title are very literate.
If we could summarize the content of this question in simple words, it would be: Please tell us your understanding of the sentence "Knowing that something cannot be done, but doing it" in "The Analects of Confucius".
Why is there an essay question? It’s different from what I heard before!
Several black lines appeared on Ogata's face involuntarily.
What Ogata had heard before was that the literary test only consisted of 100 fill-in-the-blank questions.
The government itself has always announced that there will only be 100 fill-in-the-blank questions.
Now that he saw that in addition to the 100 fill-in-the-blank questions, there was also an essay question on this examination paper, Ogata was a little dumbfounded.
And Ogata wasn't the only one who was dumbfounded.
At this moment, almost everyone who received the exam papers was dumbfounded...
…
…
Takigawa got up very early today.
Because today is the day when the literary test of "Imperial Examination" begins.
As early as a month ago, Takigawa was preparing for the literary test of "Ozen Shihe".
He studied diligently every day, not to mention memorizing it, and frequently studied the Four Books and Five Classics with other friends who were also determined to show off their skills in the "Imperial Trials".
After a month of careful preparation, Takigawa felt that he had really memorized the Four Books and Five Classics by heart, which was very different from who he was a month ago.
Takigawa was even very proud and thought arrogantly: With my current ability, it would be easy to get all the questions on the exam paper right!
Because he was very confident in himself, Takigawa had a proud and confident smile on his face this morning when he went to the North Administrative Office.
After arriving at the North Administrative Office with bold steps, Takigawa was surprised to find that he had met Goro Majima again, who had caused him to lose face in front of so many wandering girls.
However, Takigawa was not too surprised to see Goro Majima again.
After all, everyone is here to participate in the "Imperial Trial Match", and it is a high probability event to meet again in this gathering place.
After seeing Goro Majima again this time, Takigawa did not feel angry at seeing this guy who had caused him such a huge loss of face again.
Because he feels that he can easily answer all the questions in the literary test, Takigawa is in a good mood now.
Therefore, in a good mood, after meeting Majima Goro, Takigawa not only did not feel angry, but also took the initiative to say hello to Majima Goro.
Although this Majima Goro can speak Chinese fluently and seems to have a certain understanding of the Four Books and Five Classics, in Takigawa's eyes, this Majima Goro's attainments in the Four Books and Five Classics are definitely not as deep as his.
Takigawa, who was convinced that Majima Goro's performance in the literary test was definitely not as outstanding as his, after saying hello to Majima Goro, couldn't help but mock Majima Goro in a sinister tone.
After uttering a mocking remark in front of Majima Goro, Takigawa waited leisurely for the essay test to begin.
After spending a lot of time, Takigawa finally entered a cubicle of a certain tea house, and then waited until the literary test officially started and received the test papers.
After receiving the examination papers, Takigawa couldn't wait to look through the examination papers in his hands.
After seeing the questions on the examination paper, a proud smile appeared on Takigawa's face.
Among these questions, some are very easy and some are slightly difficult.
But whether it is a simple question or a difficult question, Takigawa can answer it.
Looking at these questions that he knew how to answer, the smile on Takikawa's face was filled with pride and excitement.
Until...Takigawa saw the last part of the exam paper.
After seeing the "essay question" at the end of the exam paper, the smile on Takikawa's face froze.
His eyes were full of disbelief.
"What's this……"
Then he murmured in a stunned tone.
…
…
Ogata answered the previous 100 fill-in-the-blank questions as quickly as possible.
These 100 fill-in-the-blank questions vary from difficult to easy.
Most of the questions can be answered.
But there are also a small number of question boxes that can be filled with content, but they don’t know whether the answers are correct.
"Mae Ogata" received a complete Sinology education in Terakoya and studied the Four Books and Five Classics assiduously, and Ogata himself also studied the Four Books and Five Classics well before traveling through time. However, despite the memory of "Mae Ogata", and
My own memory adds up to the two, but after all, I haven’t read the Four Books and Five Classics for a long time, so some of the content is already unfamiliar.
But Ogata didn't care about this, after all, his goal from beginning to end was not to answer all the questions on the test paper correctly and get the first place in the literary test.
His goal from the beginning was just to "pass the literary test safely and then successfully enter the next martial arts test."
After answering the first 100 fill-in-the-blank questions, I looked at the last "composition question" with a wry smile.
When answering the previous fill-in-the-blank question, Ogata was thinking about what he should write in this "composition question" while answering the question.
"Knowing that it cannot be done but doing it"...
Different people have always had different interpretations of what this sentence means.
For some reason, as he recited this sentence repeatedly in his heart, various memories and images that had been buried in the depths of Ogata's mind emerged one by one.
Memories of the decisive attack on Nijo Castle 3 months ago...
And...the memory of a year ago, when he charged alone against Matsudaira Gennai who was protected by hundreds of samurai...
…
…
Takigawa took a few deep breaths and forced his heart, which was beating wildly due to lack of calmness, to slowly return to its usual beating speed.
At this time, Takigawa also completed the previous 100 fill-in-the-blank questions.
I am preparing to launch an "attack" on this last question.
The topics in the literary test were completely different from what he had heard before, and even now, the shock in Takikawa's heart has not dissipated.
Calm down...Takigawa Heiichiro.
Takigawa muttered to himself.
You are a disciple of everyone in Sinology.
Even if there is an extra question in the exam paper, it won’t be a problem for you!
After cheering himself up several times in his mind, Takigawa took a deep breath again, and then looked at the question at the end of the examination paper.
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