On February 13th, the fourth update just entered, and the city of Luoyang, which should have been quiet late at night, was filled with crowds and bustling. The curfew policy that was strictly enforced before has been temporarily cancelled today, but the soldiers patrolling the city were still marching between the main streets and the civil yards to prevent any changes.

Rows of lanterns and torches shone the entire capital like daylight, and these fires gathered slowly and headed straight in the same direction - the Gongyuan located on the east side of the inner city. Because today is the day when the triennial examination begins, all the candidates in the city are heading towards the examination room.

Li Ling and Xu Cang were naturally among the abortion. As early as the third day, they had already gotten up, washed and ate the meal - they were still a fried dough stick and two eggs that could not be beaten - and then under the escort of Li Moyun and Zhou Ji who arrived one day, they took a carriage out and followed the crowded streets and headed towards the tribute courtyard.

Looking at the carriages and horses and people around the front and back, even Li Ling didn't feel nervous and could only use words to distract himself: "I didn't expect that the scale of today's examination would be larger than when the provincial examination was in the first place."

"That's natural." Xu Cang swallowed and replied: "According to my teacher, every time the exam is, there are two or three thousand candidates going to Beijing. After all, this is a national ceremony. All the students from all over the world, dozens of provinces, and thousands of prefectures and counties will come to try what they have learned. However, there are only a few hundred tributes who have won the exam every time, and the difficulties are far above the provincial exam." The tributes who have won the exam are the tributes. Only those who have passed the palace exam in the future are the serious Jinshi.

Li Ling nodded, and his eyes quickly swept through the vast crowd outside the car, feeling that the burden on his shoulders was a little heavier. With his own knowledge, can he really make a way out of these many talented men from all over the world?

But he had already reached this point, and thinking about the others would only increase his worries. He quickly settled his mind and stared at the front with a bright look.

Half an hour later, their carriage finally stopped outside a rope that was deliberately pulled up. When they arrived, only the candidates in this exam could enter. At that moment, Li Ling and Xu Cang greeted Li Moyun who were seeing him off, picked up the test baskets, carried a roll of bedding on their backs, got out of the car and walked forward.

It is mid-February now, and it is the coldest time for spring, so the weather is naturally much colder than the mid-autumn season during the provincial examination. Since we have to spend three days and nights in the examination room, the two who have suffered should be fully prepared. Not only do they prepare for food, but they are even taken to the shop. Only in this way can they exert all their strength in this "war".

The other candidates next to them also had the same arrangement as them, all of which were taken with the basket and the bedding in the other hand, which seemed to be more fleeing than the exam. After seeing each other, they smiled bitterly, but their steps did not stop. They quickly came to the sergeant guarding the entrance, took out their own exam certificates and silver medals, and then they could enter and truly come to the examination room.

Everything that followed was almost the same as the previous provincial examination. When they arrived at the gate of Gongyuan, they searched for their own team based on their tall lanterns. This time they were looking for no longer the lanterns from Jiangcheng County, but the lanterns from Huaibei. Soon they found the lanterns on the left side of the closed gate and leaned forward. At this time, many candidates had stood under the lanterns, and when they saw them coming, they nodded in greetings. However, due to the tension, almost no one spoke. So although there were more people gathered in front of the examination room this time, the order was much better than that at that time. Everyone joined their teams and waited silently, which formed a sharp contrast with the messy calls outside.

Of course, this may also be because everyone respects their own identities - after all, the candidates who have reached this point have some great reputation in the local area. They are all big names called masters. How could they still quarrel like students in the provincial examination?

Time passed slowly in this tranquility. When the sky gradually brightened, there was finally some movement in the examination room, which was originally a little quiet, and a few balls of fire flashed inside.

Everyone knows that the officials in the examination room were worshiping the gods of heaven and earth, and with a few drums, a majestic long drink was born: "Open the dragon gate--"

Amid the creaking friction, the wide and towering gate of the Gongyuan slowly opened. An extraordinary official wearing a red official uniform walked out with a serious expression. However, he did not rush to speak. First, the two officials on the left and right placed each incense burner brazier in front of the door and gave it their own, shouting loudly: "God of kindness comes, ghost of grudge comes! If you have grudges, you have grudges and grudges, you have grudges and grudges..."

Seeing this, Li Ling unconsciously silenced her lips and came again. This was exactly the same routine as during the provincial examination. However, if you really have a bad psychological quality and have done evil things, and if you are scared like this, this examination may really fail.

After this set of things was finished, the official said in a stern voice: "The imperial examination is the great ceremony for the country to sway talents. You are the elites and seeds of study in my country for many years. This time, the imperial court opened a vocational school to recruit scholars. I hope you can do your best. Don't let your years of hard work be wasted, but don't do anything that will make you regret for your life because of your temporary greed..."

After a clichéd speech, seeing that all the candidates bowed their hands, the examiner nodded with satisfaction and waved his hand: "Start enter the examination room and enter one by one according to the scheduled order, and do not mess up the order."

This is why the candidates were moved, first in the capital, then in Huguang and Jiangnan... When it was Huaibei where Li Ling and his friends were located, it was already after the sun was about to enter the entrance of the examination room.

Just like during the provincial examination, after entering the door, they were unable to go directly to the examination room, but were led to a foggy bathroom. As the saying goes, they became more and more skilled this time. Li Ling went straight into her clothes and untied her belt, found a wooden barrel and washed it happily.

The candidates who can reach this point have all experienced the rules that need to take a bath during the provincial examination, but even so, everyone still felt awkward. They could not be as calm as Li Ling, and could still sway a pendulum and rub their bodies, humming small songs, looking comfortable and enjoyable. This made many people look at him differently. I really want to ask him, brother, what is your face?

After taking a shower and changing into loose but still warm clothes provided by the court, Li Ling carried the already messed up bed and quit basket to the real exam room and found the exam room according to the number he gave him.

The examination room of the Beijing Gongyuan is better than that of the local area. This examination room is nearly half larger than the one during the provincial examination. Although the facilities are still simple, it can at least make people lie flat on their seats. Moreover, this examination room has a thin wooden door, so that at night, it can be covered with a reliable cover and no longer have to be disturbed by the cold wind.

What surprised Li Ling even more was that the examination room was clean from the inside to the outside, and there was no need to clean it yourself. Obviously, before this, the court had sent people to carefully sweep all the examination room. In this way, he could place pens, ink, paper, ink, and inkstone, and wait until the paper was sent above to send it out, and then he could start writing...

But because there were more candidates entering the venue this time, there was a lot of delay at the beginning. It was not until noon that the two thousand students were fully in place. As a result, the entire Gongyuan area had become quiet. When the news reached the Zhigong Hall where the examiners were located in the rear, the eyes of more than ten deputy examiners all fell on the quiet room with a closed door in the innermost room. There was the house of Fan Meisheng, the Minister of Personnel, the head examination of this conference.

At this time, Fan Shangshu closed his eyes in front of the case and suddenly felt something. His eyes suddenly opened, and he habitually stroked the long gray-white bearded back with his hands before he slowly stood up.

Fan Meisheng did not walk out of the door, but slowly came to a bookshelf in the corner of the house. After taking a row of book books, he exposed a jade box with a lock on the back.

After holding the jade box, he looked at it carefully and confirmed that there was no problem with the lock on the top, and the hot paint surrounding the box was not damaged at all, he exhaled lightly and took out a thin chain from his neck, with a key hanging on the top.

This key is naturally the lock on the box. Only by making arrangements can you ensure that when you are not in this room, the exam questions in the box will not be exposed by someone!

Fan Meisheng did things so meticulously and left almost no flaws out of helplessness, because this test is so important, and maybe someone will use the means to leak the test questions earlier, and then he will be very guilty.

This is not his worrying too much, but he has learned too many lessons before. Although the imperial examination system of the Great Yue Dynasty was extremely complete, there were bathing and changing clothes before the exam, checking the baskets and other actions, and copying the names after the exam, they could not prevent the various means of some people who achieved their goals, such as spending a lot of money to buy test questions, and bribing the soldiers in the exam room, burying relevant books and texts into the examination room earlier, and even bribing a certain deputy examiner, who had the words and words of the joints, were all...

Therefore, after being designated by the emperor as the chief examiner of this exam, in order to eliminate all these methods, he locked everyone, including himself, into the tribute school two months ago. As for the most important test questions, only he knew, and it was not until this moment that he took them out of the secret compartment.

As the key rotated, the small copper lock made a slight click. The lock head was finally opened and removed. Then, after the lid was separated from the box, the fire paint on the side was broken, it took him more than ten test questions for two months before he gently took them out.
Chapter completed!