On the fourth day of the ninth month, it is auspicious.

The sky was not yet dawn, and the air revealed the cold wave of autumn, but half of the city had already woken up. Houses are lit up, and the occasional powerful knock on the door is heard.

Township test, a real chance to leap into the dragon gate. If you cross this threshold, you will make a leap from the people to the officials, and become the squire class of the Ming Dynasty, and you will have no worries about food and clothing from now on.

Guangdong's quota is only 75, but the reference number is as high as 2,000. If you advance, you will be prosperous and rich, and if you retreat, you will have to study hard for three years.

No one wants to have another three years, even if it is only a year because this year is Enko, but no one wants to wait, everyone wants to jump over this dragon gate in one fell swoop.

Lin Haoran went to bed very early last night, but because of nervousness, he fell asleep very late. But the tiger girl slept very sweetly, and woke him up on time at the end of the ugly hour.

Ah Qi brought a basin of hot water and asked Lin Haoran to wash his face, and this simple man stood aside very nervously. If the nineteenth uncle in front of him is promoted, he will become an official master, and it will also be a great honor for Changlin Village.

After washing his face, Lin Haoran was carefully dressed. Wearing a black scarf, a cyan student uniform, foundation soap boots on his feet, and a belt, he was neatly dressed.

After Hu Niu was busy in the kitchen, she brought the breakfast to the hall of the restaurant. Today's breakfast was very simple, just a bowl of fragrant white porridge and pickles, and a few hard-boiled eggs.

Wu Daoxing also got up early, and when Lin Haoran was drinking porridge, he took out a Taoist talisman and said: "The grievances of the Gongyuan are too strong, and this year is a temporary increase in Enke, it is inevitable that there will be evil ghosts, this can make you avoid evil!" ”

Lin Haoran glanced up at him, hesitated for a moment, but still accepted the talisman, and then said to him: "You can help me calculate a hexagram!" ”

"The place guarded by Wenqu Xing, I can't count it!" Wu Daoxing waved his hand resolutely.

Lin Haoran didn't force it, seeing that the tiger girl was eating sweetly, he handed her the peeled eggs, and asked curiously: "Why are you wearing this suit again, wasn't the neckline stained yesterday?" ”

"You have to wear it even if it's dirty! I wore this outfit last time, and you got the first one! It's definitely the same this time! Tiger Niu took the egg, raised her face and looked at him with some smugness.

Lin Haoran smiled helplessly, continued to peel eggs, and followed the tiger girl to enjoy breakfast.

As soon as the two had breakfast, they heard a knock on the door, and Ah Qi went out and walked back, saying that Zhao Dongcheng's carriage was already waiting outside the door.

A few people picked up the examination room utensils and went out with their things.

Zhao Dongcheng's complexion was not good, he definitely didn't sleep well last night, and his tender white face looked very haggard. However, he maintained the image of a humble gentleman, greeted Lin Haoran respectfully, and took the initiative to give up his seat.

In front of the carriage hung the words "Guangzhou Gongyuan", today's Guangzhou city is extraordinary, the whole city is under martial law, and the carriage without this style of lantern is not allowed to go to the street at all.

When he arrived at the Guangzhou Gongyuan, the genius was bright.

Ah Qi helped move the things down, but he was stopped just about to go inside. Each person can only bring one person in to help the candidates carry their luggage, and Hu Niu took the initiative to take over the job.

The tiger girl's strength is actually very strong, but Lin Haoran took the initiative to take most of the heavy loads, and only asked her to help carry an exam basket.

For the square in front of the Gongyuan, Hu Niu was more familiar than Lin Haoran, and immediately walked in front to lead the way. Because this is actually a place to practice stalls, she has been here several times before and bought a lot of things.

There is a magnificent memorial arch on the left and right sides of the square, the memorial arch on the right is "Tengjiao", the left side is written "Qifeng", and there is a memorial arch in front of the gate of the Gongyuan that says "Tiankai Wenyun".

In front of the gate of the Gongyuan, a gate has been built, but there are soldiers guarding here, and the candidates are blocked from here, and a large group of candidates are standing here waiting for the township examination to begin.

As soon as the time came, three cannons rang out in front of the Guangzhou Gongyuan, and then three more sounds.

Multiply......

The gate of the Gongyuan, which had been sealed for two years, was slowly opened, and the Enke Township trial in the 36th year of Jiajing was unveiled.

"Grace ghosts enter, there is grace to repay kindness; Resentful ghosts enter, and there is revenge. ”

But I saw two groups of soldiers, one holding a red flag and the other holding a black flag, shouting loudly outside the gate.

The candidates who were so nervous in front of the gate couldn't help but look at each other, not understanding which one these soldiers were singing and why they were dancing here.

An old examinee explained, "This is summoning ghosts!" The engenious ghost will hide in the red flag and follow in, and the resentful ghost will hide in the black flag and follow in, so people still need to do good, don't do evil! ”

Grieve!

When someone heard these words, he immediately gasped. Even if he is a candidate who has no evil deeds, he must not feel a chill at this time, as if he is really afraid that evil spirits will entangle him.

Lin Haoran looked at the inside of the gate of the Tribute Courtyard, only to feel the gust of wind, and couldn't help but reach out and touch the talisman.

It was at this time that the chief examiner, Yin Tai, accompanied by several fellow examiners, appeared at the gate of the Gongyuan and began to lecture the candidates in the square. First, I said some clichés of thanking the emperor for his grace, and then warned everyone about the consequences of cheating.

The gate will no longer allow helpers to come in, the tiger girl was stopped outside, and Lin Haoran followed the crowd into the gate and lined up in the long aisle to search.

"Oops! What are you doing! I just want to go in and accompany my brother, I'm so young and there's no way I'm cheating! ”

When Lin Haoran was lining up through the instrument gate to be searched, he suddenly heard a very familiar voice, and when he looked back, he suddenly sweated. But I saw that the tiger girl who tried to sneak in was arrested, and this girl actually planned to sneak in and take the exam with him.

At dawn, it was finally his turn to search.

Compared with the children's examination, the township examination is stricter in preventing cheating, and there are special search and inspection personnel.

In the face of this opportunity to "leap into the dragon gate", many students still can't resist the temptation, so they will take risks, such as entrainment of cheat sheets.

The personnel of the search and inspection are no longer served by the officials of the local yamen, but are handed over to the soldiers to be in charge, commonly known as the "search and inspection army". They are often experienced veteran oil soldiers, and they can find people out with just those eyes.

They had small hammers in their hands, and they struck everything to see if it was hollow, and the seriousness was that of a master appraiser. For those rice ball pastries, they will also be cut and inspected neatly.

There was a sudden commotion in the team next to him, and a search inspector shouted a few words, but saw a middle-aged scholar kneeling and begging for mercy. But several soldiers in battle armor had already walked over and dragged the middle-aged scholar out.

There was a rule in the Ming Dynasty that in addition to being outside the Gongyuan for a month, this candidate would also cancel the fame of the student, and he would never want to participate in the imperial examination again in this life.

Compared with the pain of the student who was found, the morale of the search army was high.

The reason why they are so active is naturally not their duty, but that they will receive a reward of two taels of silver for each fraudster detected.