On the third day of the second lunar month, the news of the chief examiner of the examination finally came out, Zhou Yanru, the first assistant of the cabinet, was the chief examiner, and Wen Tiren, the assistant minister of the cabinet, was the deputy chief examiner, but these news had little to do with many people who took the exam, and there were still five days to go, and they were about to enter the Gongyuan to participate in the examination.

Zheng Xunrui's main energy is also focused on reviewing his homework, but the difference is that he can make corresponding analysis.

The examination questions of the examination and the palace examination are all directly issued by the emperor, the difference is that the examination questions of the examination, after the Ministry of Rites has prepared multiple sets, the emperor chooses one set of them, and after the royal pen is hand-picked, it becomes the examination questions of the examination, but the palace examination is directly issued by the emperor, and the palace examination is an examination question, which lasts a day.

Most people think that the emperor will definitely hand-pick the exam questions prepared by the Ministry of Rites, even if they are counted, but Zheng Xunrui does not think so, the Chongzhen Emperor in history, as the king of the dead country, there are many people who analyze, but no matter how depreciating and how unbearable it is, one thing is recognized, that is, the diligence of Emperor Chongzhen, it can be said that the emperors in history can really not be compared with Chongzhen in terms of diligence.

Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen ascended the throne and faced the Ming Dynasty with a thousand holes, which has reached the point of crumbling, and the ambitious Zhu Youzhen thought of saving the Ming Dynasty and creating a prosperous era of the Ming Dynasty, and also made him the emperor famous through the ages, but unfortunately it backfired, and the name was done through the ages, but it was the collapse of the Ming Empire.

Not to mention the analysis of the reasons for the collapse of the Ming Empire, judging from Zhu Youzhen's current mood, discovering and reusing talents is the most urgent goal he needs to achieve, and the meeting test and the palace test are the best opportunities.

In the palace test in the first year of Chongzhen, Zhu Youzhen had just ascended the throne, and there were too many things to deal with, especially the need to free up his hands to deal with the eunuchs led by Wei Zhongxian.

Zhu Youzhen, who is in such an urgent mood, how could he be willing to let the Ministry of Rites give the exam questions, he must have done it himself.

The situation of the examination is different from that of the township examination, it should be said that the people who participate in the examination have good knowledge, and there is no need to worry about not being familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics, and anyone can recite the Four Books and Five Classics in large sections.

Since Zhu Youzhen wants to find talents from the general examination and the palace examination, then the examination questions can only be combined with reality.

Speaking of this combined with reality, it must be the many problems that the Ming Dynasty is currently facing, speaking of which are those aspects, the continuous strength of the Later Jin Tartars, threatening the Ming Dynasty, the Shaanxi Liukou rebellion, affecting Shanxi, making the north unstable, years of famine, making the people impoverished, struggling on the death line, the lack of taxes in the imperial court, unable to feed the army, unable to provide disaster relief, the mutiny of the army, the instability of the local officials, and so on.

But Zheng Xunrui is very clear about these realities.

He could almost conclude that Zhu You's test questions must be combined with these aspects, and they may not be particularly in-depth, but they must be related to these things.

If you can make a general judgment and put forward a relatively novel view of governing the country during the examination, then you can be regarded as a real talent if you can put forward a more precise concept of governing the country through the palace examination.

For a few days in a row, Zheng Xunrui recalled a lot of history, and at the same time, combined with some things that appeared in the imperial court informed by Yang Tingshu, he had a rough judgment in his heart, and the eight-strand text he prepared was combined with the content of this opposite.

The exam is gambling, Zheng Xunrui can only hold such a point of view, 2,500 lifters, including those who have participated in the exam many times, people's exam experience is very rich, if you can't make an accurate analysis, thinking about getting out of the 2,500 people, it is difficult to go to the sky.

The difficulty of the examination is far greater than that of the township examination, after all, it is an examination for the gathering of talents, think about the champion Wen Zhenmeng in the year of the Apocalypse, after ten times of the examination, he was able to pass the palace examination and become the champion of the palace examination in one fell swoop.

Zheng Xunrui knew that if he wanted to stand out in the examination and participate in the palace examination, he must have accurate analysis and put forward novel arguments, so that he could have a chance.

And the results of the examination have a great impact on the palace examination.

The top tributes in the examination will directly attract the attention of the emperor, and what is even worse is that the palace examination is directly marked, and there is no zài name and transcription, and the selected articles can be seen directly by the emperor, of course, the emperor has an impression of whom, and he can also directly read the article of a certain tribute.

For three days, the meals were delivered to the room by the guys.

Zheng Xunrui was very careful, all the analyses were carefully written down, and after reading them three times, they were all incinerated without leaving any traces.

Chongzhen is the eighth day of the second month of the fourth year.

At the ugly moment, Zheng Xunrui, Yang Tingshu and others got up.

In the capital in early spring, the wind is cold, and the temperature at night is not much different from that in the middle of winter.

Zheng Xunrui and Yang Tingshu, who were shivering from the cold, took a carriage, and the other five people took a carriage and headed towards the Gongyuan, they had no way, the distance between the restaurant and the Gongyuan was a little far, and there were a lot of people rushing to take the exam on this day, and there were traffic jams on the wide road, of course, the carriage was blocked.

Sure enough, the carriage was slow, dark rumbling on all sides, and the carriage was illuminated by an oil lamp in front of it.

Soon, countless lights will be reconciled, and the closer you get to the Gongyuan, the more oil lamps will appear.

From the restaurant to the Gongyuan, it took an hour and a half, and when Zheng Xunrui, Yang Tingshu and others arrived at the Gongyuan, it was already three o'clock.

Stepping out of the carriage, Zheng Xunrui was shocked by the scene in front of him.

Many people were waiting outside the Gongyuan with lanterns in their hands, because there were too many lanterns, and the surrounding areas were bright, and they could see the faces of the candidates clearly.

For the sake of career, for life, for fame, this is a sin that must be suffered.

A group of seven people soon joined the army, each candidate who came to participate in the examination, at least one scholar, some people brought more entourage, more than 2,500 candidates, plus the scholars and entourage who came together, there were nearly 10,000 people outside the Gongyuan, fortunately, there was a huge open space in front of the Gongyuan, which could accommodate so many people.

At the end of the day, the door of the Gongyuan finally opened.

The people began to enter the Tribute Temple.

The inspection of the test is as strict, and it is more cruel than the township test, when the township test, the climate is better, even if you take off your clothes to check, it will not freeze, but the test will be different, the climate is cold, and people wear a lot, after all, there are eight days in the tribute courtyard, plus the quilt and other items brought in, all need to be scattered for inspection.

This made the speed of entering the Tribute Courtyard slower and slower.

Zheng Xunrui doesn't care, his health is good, he participated in the training of the nursing home at home, he has a good body, plus he is young, he pays attention to life on weekdays, so he can bear it, as for many people in later generations to comment on such an inspection, it is a great insult to the reader, Zheng Xunrui doesn't care, since he wants to fly Huang Tengda, how can it be possible without paying the price, this is the truth in ancient and modern China and abroad, as long as you pass the guò test, what appears in front of you is the Cotai Avenue.

At the end of the day, Zheng Xunrui entered the Tribute Academy.

The Gongyuan in the capital and the Nanjing Gongyuan are almost the same, one by one the bird cages, that is, the places where people need to stay for eight days, eating, drinking, and sleeping in the bird cages.

Although he had been prepared for a long time, when he saw these bird cages, Zheng Xunrui's heart was still a little frightened.

I didn't sleep for almost a night, and after finding my own small cage, Zheng Xunrui, who went in, was not polite, laid out the quilt, and began to fall asleep.

Anyway, there is nothing to do, the outer curtain officer is at most three checks, the appropriate wooden card and identity, etc., remind the exam of the matters that need to be paid attention to, these are all known, the outer curtain official also knows, such an important exam, thinking about impostor is very difficult, but people can impersonate to get the wooden card, the outer curtain official has no way to verify it, there is no photographic technology in this era, and there will be no personal glorious image on the wooden card.

The time of the day passed quickly, fortunately, the climate in Beijing in February has a large temperature difference, and the night is cold, but the weather during the day is still good, and it rarely rains in these years, so you don't have to worry about the weather in the rainy season.

On the ninth day of the first month of February, with a bang, Chongzhen's four-year examination officially began.

Zheng Xunrui seemed a little anxious, in the day of rest in the Gongyuan, he thought a lot, on the way to the capital, he saw the scenes, almost all appeared in his mind, which made him attach great importance to this examination, he must be through the guò will try, so that he can have the opportunity to really enter the court, as for the next thing, you can think of a way step by step, use the advantage of crossing, and use the golden finger to create a chance, but if you will try to fail, That may have to take another difficult path, and the fame of people is not enough for him to gather enough qualifications.

There are many responsibilities, so Zheng Xunrui can't completely calm down, he knows that this is not much good for himself, but it is impossible to completely control the situation, he is a human being, not a god.

When the sound sounded, Zheng Xunrui's body even trembled slightly, I don't know if the climate at night was too cold.

The outer curtain officer began to walk around, reading out the test questions loudly, many candidates on the white paper, quickly wrote down the exam questions, Zheng Xunrui wrote down the exam questions, a long sigh of relief, the first and most important exam, finally began.