42. Another Fate (Please Read It Later)

The three of them looked at each other and smiled, thinking that Huaiyuan Inn would be good at doing business.

Seeing that it was dark outside, Chen Jianan first asked about the price of lanterns to please him. When he learned that the price of lanterns was not much higher than the outside world,

He bought three red lanterns, gave two to his classmates, and kept one for himself.

Then...,

The three of them left the Huaiyuan Inn holding lanterns.

"Are the candidates from Chang'an County here?"

As soon as he reached the door of the government office, Xu Xing heard a loud-voiced government servant shouting.

"have!"

Li Mingda shouted hurriedly, then casually put the lantern into Xu Xing's hand, and walked quickly to the row of candidates in Chang'an County.

The Prefectural Examination is an examination conducted by candidates who have passed the County Examination in the counties under the jurisdiction of Jingzhao Prefecture.

Before entering the examination room, the government officials will let the candidates enter in batches according to the county of residence. Counties such as Chang'an County and Xianning County are the counties closest to the provincial capital under the jurisdiction of Jingzhao Prefecture.

Therefore, candidates from Chang'an County, Xianning County and other counties were the first batch of people to enter the examination room.

Li Mingda is from Chang'an County.

"From Jingyang County..."

"Hurry up!"

After a while, another yamen servant shouted.

Xu Xing joined the ranks of candidates in Jingyang County.

It is slightly different from the county examination. When it comes to the government examination and the hospital examination, you will be given a seat.

The top ten candidates in each county's county examination take the exam in the court hall where the prefect is seated, and the prefect and other senior officials personally invigilate the examination.

If you catch the examiner's eye during the exam, it is common for you to be selected in the government exam in public.

Xu Xing did not have such a good fortune. He was ranked fourteenth in the county examination and was not given the treatment of sitting in the court. After going through the procedures of the Linbao interrogator, he was taken to a corner of the examination room by the clerk and took a seat for the examination.

After a while, the government officials held up their lanterns and paraded back and forth.

[Four book titles:]

[King Hui of Liang said: ‘In the Kingdom of Jin, there is no one strong in the world, but it is the right way to deal with neighboring countries. ? ’]

Intercept questions.

Both sentences come from the "King Hui of Liang" chapter in "Mencius".

Seeing this test question, Xu Xing immediately secretly rejoiced. He was glad that he informed Xiaoyi Hall early and asked them to run errands to help him obtain Yin Fuzun's information.

The prefectural examination is the same as the county examination. The first session is the main examination.

In the main examination, the first question is the most important.

This interception question is not difficult. It is not difficult to write a broken question. But the difficulty lies in writing a broken question that fits the examiner's political leanings and makes it a top-notch paper.

The first sentence of King Hui of Liang said, the full text is: "King Hui of Liang said: 'The Kingdom of Jin is not strong in the world, as the old man only knows. As for me, I will be defeated by Qi in the east, my eldest son will die, and Qin will be lost in the west. More than seven hundred miles away, the south is humiliated by Chu. I wish I could be compared to the dead, what can I do?"

The source of the second sentence is that King Xuan of Qi asked Mencius, "Is there a way to deal with neighboring countries?"

"Time point..."

"At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Kang and Liang submitted a letter to implement the reform and reform..."

"The imperial court affects the local area."

"Master Yin..."

Xu Xing did not rush to write, but first thought about the intention of the government to write this question.

In the imperial examination, it is by no means that only those with strong literary talent can win the gold medal. Since ancient times, countless poets and poets with good literary talents have failed to make the list. The reason why they failed was not because they didn't have the talent to pass the exam, but because they couldn't figure out the deeper meaning of the test papers, so they failed secretly.

"In the fifteenth year of Guangxu's reign, Master Yin wrote a letter strongly criticizing the foreign affairs for causing chaos in the country and destroying the machinery of his rule."

"The eighteenth year of Guangxu..."

Xu Xing recalled information about Yin Fuzun.

Every sentence seems to be against the Westernizationists.

"No, that's not right..."

He quickly overturned his thoughts.

The Westernizers are not the same as the reformers. The reason why Yin Fuzun criticized the Westernizers was probably not because of the Westernizers, but because most of the Westernizers were southern officials...

After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, most of the southern provinces were autonomous and separatist.

The Qing government could only collect taxes.

The northern local officials' opposition to Westernization was just political correctness, but not really anti-Westernization.

According to the data, Yin Fuzun had a good relationship with Fang Yun, the governor of Qin Province. The reformers did not hold real power, but relied on the emperor's power to carry out reform movements, so...

It’s time to write about the Reform!

Xu Xing took a deep breath, pondered immediately, and wrote: "The sage passed on the learning of the previous kings, deployed troops in Lu, and promoted the virtues of Duke Zhou. Although Qi is great, Duke Jin can't sleep peacefully."

He still continued his steady routine when solving problems.

Not radical.

The meaning of this sentence is: Confucius inherited the knowledge of the ancestors, saved the crisis-ridden Lu State from military disasters, and carried forward the virtues of Zhou Gong in Lu State. Even though Qi State was strong, Qi Jinggong was unwilling to eat and could not sleep at night.

However, after clarifying the meaning of this sentence, Xu Xing changed his style again and mentioned the sentence "Although Zhou was an old country, its destiny was restored" in Xiaoya in the Book of Songs.

This sentence means...the learning of the ancient kings carried forward by Confucius also has the meaning of restoration.

History is a little girl who can be dressed up by others.

So is Confucianism.

Whatever you want, just take it from the words of the sages.

In short, Xu Xing's core idea is to perform small-scale "surgery" on the basis of worshiping the ancients.

In this way, it seems that he, a young man, is not lifeless and has the will to reform, but during the reform, he is more cautious and does not act randomly.

Know how to advance and retreat wisely!

After finishing the four-book title.

The next few Five Classics questions and strategy questions are not so "crisis-ridden".

Xu Xing had a good foundation and answered them one by one.

…

In the evening, I walked out of the gantry of the examination shed.

Xu Xing was waiting at the door for his two classmates, Chen Jianan and Li Mingda.

Not long after, Chen Jianan walked out of the examination room with a gloomy face. He said as he walked: "This Yin Fuzun has bad intentions. What kind of questions are he asking..."

"How did you solve the questions?"

Xu Xing asked casually.

The two were roommates, so there was no need to be too taboo when asking about solving questions.

"I didn't dare to answer, I was afraid of something going wrong."

"Anyway, I have no hope of being selected in the college exam this year."

Chen Jianan shook his head, and he had a clear understanding of himself.

As for the Four Books questions asked by Yin Fuzun, he couldn't control Yin Fuzun's intentions, and was afraid that he would be involved in a literary inquisition if he wrote something wrong, so he didn't dare to answer.

Literary inquisitions occurred frequently in the Qing Dynasty, and the most famous one was the "Weimin Suozhi" case.

Weimin, in the fourth year of Yongzheng, Cha Siting served as the chief examiner of Jiangxi. The question he asked used the sentence "Weimin Suozhi" from the Book of Songs, so some people thought that he had ulterior motives and intended to cut off Yongzheng's head.

"Yongzheng" without the head is "Weizhi".

"Where's Brother Mingda?"

"Has he not left the examination room yet?"

Chen Jianan looked around and asked curiously.

While talking, Li Mingda was carried out of the examination room by the crowd. However, his face was a little abnormally ruddy, and when he walked to the two classmates, he was a little out of breath.

"Half of his life has been lost, why bother."

Chen Jianan shook his head, sighed, and supported Li Mingda with Xu Xing.

...

Three days later.

The results of the prefectural examination were announced.

Unexpectedly, Xu Xing ranked first in this exam.

He was the first in the prefecture.

At the same time, Xu Xing's white fate [Wenchang] was also promoted to a red fate. And he condensed a fate that he did not expect [Reform].