It was already the hour of Hai when Li Yanqing returned to the inn. The inn was still brightly lit. The shopkeeper and a few friends were busy preparing food for the candidates. The next exam would take three days and two nights. The exam room did not provide food, so the candidates needed to prepare it themselves.

Generally, this kind of business is taken over by inns. If the candidate pays 500 cents, the inn will prepare the second and third sessions for the candidates, and there is also the necessary money to make some money. This has been the case for decades and has become a routine.

In addition to food, each candidate also needs to bring thick clothes. After all, it is early November, and it is winter in Anyang, and it is very cold at night. The inn provides blanket rental services. Candidates can rent a soft and thick wool blanket, a must-have item for the imperial examination.

Li Yanqing did not go back to his room, but went to Zhang Xian and his two people's rooms in the backyard. As soon as he entered the door, Zhang Xian shrewd and pointed to the bed. Qin Liang was already asleep. The two walked into the yard. Zhang Xian sighed and said, "Qin Liang has decided to give up this imperial examination and prepare to study in the state."

Li Yanqing was not surprised that he only did half of the questions in the first exam. No matter how good he did, he would never pass the imperial examination. If the next few exams were of any significance to him, it would be just to add a little experience in the imperial examination. But... it was a wise decision to give up early in his position.

"How did you do today?" Li Yanqing asked after turning the question.

"What should I say today? It's a pity. I've been doing it well before. When the last question was halfway through, the candle was gone. I couldn't see the test paper clearly. I almost used the light of the lantern at the door to finish the question. The calligraphy of the last few lines of characters was extremely bad."

Zhang Xian had bitterness on his face. He was inexperienced and lit a candle as soon as he entered the room, which resulted in insufficient candles in the end.

Li Yanqing patted his shoulder and comforted him: "This time, not only you, but many people have such problems. The examiner should deal with it as appropriate. Don't consider this matter now. Go to bed early and do your best to prepare for tomorrow's exam. The highlight will be the next two days."

Zhang Xian nodded silently. After all, he had finished the test questions today, which made him still have a glimmer of hope.

"In addition, I would like to remind you that this time, there are only fifteen people who have been able to perform well in all aspects to have hope of being shortlisted. Of course, I am not talking about you. I just want to say that once cheating is caught, I am afraid that even the gates of state schools will be closed. Which one is more important here? I think everyone should be praised."

After saying that, Li Yanqing patted Zhang Xian on the shoulder, turned around and walked quickly.

Zhang Xian's face turned red like a persimmon. After a while, he walked to the table, took out more than a dozen small notes about criminal law from a book, and threw them in a brazier and burned them. He was not stupid, but sometimes he was confused. As long as someone reminded him, he would wake up.

.........

The next day, before dawn, there was no need for a guy to lead, so the candidates set off themselves, each carrying two large packages, one containing food and the other containing clothes and bedding. However, because there were too many things, the on-site inspection was too time-consuming, and I am afraid that there would be no more inspections by noon.

Therefore, according to the convention, the scholar placed the package in a designated location, and everyone's test number was sewn on it. After the inspection, the soldiers will send the package directly to the number room.

There were soldiers in strict supervision at the parcel placement. As long as the parcel was handed over to the soldier, they could leave directly. An examiner kept repeating the warning loudly like a repeater: "No prohibited items are allowed in the parcel. Once seized, they will be treated as cheating!"

Li Yanqing handed over his package. At this moment, someone suddenly shouted behind him: "Brother Li, don't you wait for me?"

Li Yanqing turned around and saw Fatty Zheng walking over with enthusiasm, but there was no item on his body. Looking at his back, the three strong men followed him with difficulty.

Li Yanqing's mouth twitched. Is he taking the imperial examination or going on vacation?

"There's no way. I want to bring less, but my mother is afraid that I'm hungry, so she brought me two big bags of food and a pack of clothes and bedding. Unfortunately, there is no communication in the exam room, otherwise we can have a meal together."

Fatty Zheng said this to Li Yanqing. Anyway, this person has the help of the examiner to cooperate with the inside and outside, so he doesn't have to search for answers by himself. Especially through the practice of a meal last night, Li Yanqing knew his appetite. If there was no sufficient food for three days and two nights, he would not be able to support his hippo-like body shape.

"Haha! I just arrived too."

"Let's go in together!"

Zheng Rongtai waved his hand and the three strong men handed the bag to the soldiers. Each of them showed a look of relief. Several soldiers had a bitter face and struggled to move his package in.

The process was the same as yesterday, because there was no need to check the package, it was much faster. After a quarter of an hour, they sat in their respective rooms.

At this time, the night was still deep, but no scholar dared to light a candle anymore. Yesterday's lesson was very profound. Instead of cursing that the exam room was not good, it was better to restrain yourself and endure the darkness a little.

In fact, there is no need to worry about the second candle, because after two nights, there are five candles in the basket.

The examination room was quiet, and the cold wind passed through the alley, making a terrifying howling sound. The scholars were trembling with coldness, hoping that their package would be delivered soon.

As the sky was dawn, a crisp sound of cloud boards came from the escort building. The exam time was up, and the examiner began to distribute answer sheets and test questions to scholars. There was no test list today. Because the number of questions was too large, they could only be distributed to the answer sheets using printed test papers. The test papers had two large sheets, and each person had another ten formal answer sheets and ten straw papers.

Today, the new meaning of the Three Classics was the highlight of the imperial examination. Li Yanqing took a look at the test questions and immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Sure enough, he was guessed by his master. It was not the comprehension method of testing in the south, but also the Ming Sutra that continued the traditional northern Ming Sutra, which was mainly based on posting the sutra and memorizing the silence.

The education methods in the north and south of the Song Dynasty were different. The north attached importance to the memorization of scriptures and the south attached importance to the understanding of scriptures, so there have always been statements about the Southern Jinshi and the Northern Ming Jing. The Southern scholars were admitted to the Jinshi subject, and the Northern scholars were admitted to the Ming Jing. Since the Ming Jingshi subject was abolished, few northern scholars were admitted to the Jinshi subject and began to switch to the Imperial Academy. There were also statements about the Southern Imperial Academy and the Northern Taixu subject.

Although I don’t test the comprehension type of question in the south today, it is not easy to get ahead. The main reason is that the number of questions is too large. The "New Meaning of the Three Classics" has a total of forty-nine volumes, and the number of interpretations is no less than the main text. What’s more, the title of the Ming scripture itself is the strength of the scholars in the north. If you want to make a name for yourself among the many excellent scholars, you must have a good word and excellent calligraphy.

Not only Li Yanqing, but almost all the scholars breathed a sigh of relief. Yesterday's "The Analects of Confucius" and "Mencius" were all over the place. Today, the familiar question types finally appeared, and everyone felt that they had hope again.

When the second sound of the cloud board sounded, the exam officially began, and scholars picked up their pens and started writing rustlingly.

Li Yanqing was not in a hurry to start writing. He wanted to assign questions and coordinate them reasonably.

There are thirty questions in total, which are three days and two nights. In fact, they are three days and ten questions a day on average. If you don’t write a draft and answer the questions directly on the formal answer sheet, there is plenty of time. But once you write a draft, you only have half a day to answer the questions. Although the Ming Jing questions are not difficult, they are famous for their large amounts. Writing a draft means doing it twice.

But if you want to get a high score, you must write a draft to ensure that the paper is not changed word by word and the beauty on the paper. Li Yanqing hesitated for a long time and decided to write a draft. Although the time is a little tight, he writes very quickly and can earn some time back.

When Li Yanqing looked at the first question, he only said that the Grand Situ was responsible for the land map of the country and the number of people to assist Wang An in trouble the country. The title required this sentence as the initial writing of the text of this volume.

Li Yanqing had already memorized it, and he immediately recognized that this was the first place in Volume 6 of "Zhou Guan Xinyi". After writing the text as required, it had about 5,000 words.

Li Yanqing couldn't help but take a breath of air. It would take at least one and a half hours to write the complete text. If each question was as much as this, it would be too late to finish even if he didn't write the draft.

He quickly put down his pen and looked at all the questions carefully. Fortunately, there were only three questions like this, and the other questions were not large in volume. There were more than a dozen questions and even more than a hundred words of interpretation.

At this time, he suddenly remembered one important thing, that is, the arrangement of fonts, there are only ten regular papers in total, and only one side is allowed to write. Then how big the font he needs to write to ensure that the test paper is sufficient. This is an extremely important detail question. If it is not arranged properly, the font in the front is large and the paper is not enough later, and then it is forced to write sesame characters, and even if there is no test paper answer, it will seriously affect the score.

Li Yanqing simply put down his pen and began to calculate the number of words in full. It took him nearly an hour to calculate that thirty questions had to write more than 23,000 words in total, and a regular sheet had to write more than 2,300 words. Li Yanqing had written a novel for five years and was already perfect in controlling the number of words. He immediately had a beautiful and beautiful face in his mind. The font should be in the font size four, the spacing was half-frame, and the smoothest use of running regular script.

When he finished planning all thirty questions, an hour had passed, and he had not written a single word.

At this time, Li Yanqing suddenly found someone looking at him. When he looked up, he saw a long bearded inspector standing at the door looking at him with his hands behind his back, with a puzzled look in his eyes, which meant that he was asking why he didn't write yet? And other candidates had already written a lot.

Li Yanqing pushed the straw paper slightly forward, and it was full of statistics. The middle-aged official picked up the draft paper and saw that the first question was written with more than 5,700 words, two pages of paper, more than 1,200 words of the second question, one page of paper, and the third question...

The invigilator then realized that the young candidate in front of him was coordinating the test papers. This was called sharpening the knife without delaying the chopping of wood. This was the smart candidate. He nodded in approval, put down the straw paper and left.

Li Yanqing took a piece of straw paper and started to write:

The Grand Situ was in charge of the land map for building a country and the number of people, and assisted Wang An in disturbing the country.

If you master the map of the land, you should protect the soil and be equal. You can apply the land of the kingdom, you can seek the territory of the country, you can control the number of people, you can control the land and the duties of the land and the tribute, you can command the soldiers of all people, you can guard the number of rooms of the capital, and then you can assist the king and disturb the country...

.........
Chapter completed!