In order to prevent fraud, since the examiner received the order, he had to live in the tribute courtyard, and the outer curtain officials could not go out until the end of the examination, and as for the inner curtain officials, they had to wait until the results were released to regain their freedom.

Coming out of Beiyuan, Wang Xian and the curtain officials took a car to the Gongyuan in the east of the city. In the carriage, there were civil officials who served as fellow examiners, and if no one was talking, they were usually with military attachés, and they would talk more, and they would be more literate, and they especially loved to drop their book bags...... For example, why Gongyuan is located in the east of the city is because it takes the meaning of oriental civilization. For example, the Gongyuan and the observatory stand opposite each other, which is taken from the meaning of "observing astronomy, observing time changes, observing humanities, and transforming the world" in the Book of Changes...... They can often make a group of military attachés ashamed of themselves, and they dare not speak up.

However, this year's situation is not quite the same, because there is Wang Xian in the military attaché team, and the military attaches hope that he can say something to save some face for them. Wang Xian knows his own affairs, and with the ink in his belly, he really wants to drag the text with others, and eighty percent of it is to reveal the stuffing. Fortunately, those civil officials did not call him an official position, but referred to him as a letter, obviously not wanting to treat him as a military attaché, and they were quite respectful in and out of words......

"Brother Zhongde was in the limelight yesterday!" A director of the Ministry of Rites, who served as the reading officer, admired and said: "Hu Gongzi's palindromic poetry couplet actually has a great background, but it was not actually made by them on the spot," he said with a mysterious smile and said: "Does Zhongde know whose handwriting it came from?" ”

"Could it be Master Hu?" Wang Xianxin said, 'Sure enough', and was also very curious.

"It's not Bachelor Hu, it's Bachelor Xie. Bachelor Hu is very knowledgeable, but he is not as good as Bachelor Xie in terms of talent," the director of the Ministry of Rites said with a smile: "Back then, Bachelor Xie was still the president of "The Emperor of Yongle"," he said with a look of reminiscence: "At that time, Bachelor Xie was so graceful and uninhibited, and after finishing work every day, he would gather a group of staff, drink and have fun together, or sing poems and songs, or make a play of words. This uplink was thought up by Mr. Hu during a banquet, but unfortunately, with Mr. Hu's talent, he didn't expect the downlink. ”

"How did Brother Zhicheng know so clearly?" Wang Xian said strangely. Before getting on the bus, everyone greeted each other, and the head of the ceremonial department was called Zhang Wenwen Zhicheng, and Wang Xian was not mistaken.

"Brother Zhicheng was also one of the compilers of the Yongle Canon." Next to the civil official road.

"Disrespectful, disrespectful." Wang Xian said solemnly.

"Where, where," Director Zhang said with a look of pride on his face, and a little bitterness: "The Yongle Canon naturally shocks the past and the present, but it is only one of the hundreds of writers and cultivators, so it is really not worth mentioning. He didn't say a word yet, but from his lonely expression, everyone knew what he meant...... According to the regulations, the reading officials are all around 40 years old, from five to seven grades, and those who have a stop are in charge. This Zhang Wen was born in Hanlin back then, and he became an official at the age of thirty to the sixth grade, just because he participated in the compilation of the "Yongle Canon", he was naturally classified as the party of Xie Jin, and he has been brutally suppressed over the years, and he is still a main matter. However, Director Zhang did not resent Xie Jin, but was very grateful to him for the opportunity to participate in the compilation of "The Emperor of Yongle", and sighed: "Master Xie Quanxia has knowledge, and he must be very pleased to know that Brother Zhongde has made a couplet. ”

Although the news of Xie Jin's death did not appear in the newspaper, how can there be an impermeable wall in the world? It has spread all over the capital. In fact, there is also a reason why Wang Xian is behind the scenes, otherwise the news will come out late, and others will mistakenly think that it is his responsibility.

mentioned Xie Jin, who died in prison, everyone sighed for a while, and when they arrived at the gate of Yingtiangong Courtyard, they didn't talk about it anymore.

The carriage stopped in the square in front of the Gongyuan, here is the place where the children gather after a few days, Wang Xian looked around after getting off the car, only to see the left and right sides of the square, there is a memorial arch each, the memorial arch on the left is written 'Tengjiao', the memorial arch on the right is written outside the 'Qi Feng', you can see it when you cross the memorial arch, the back of the two memorial arches is written on the back of the 'Ming Jing to take scholars', 'for the country to seek talents' four strong big characters, fully point out the usefulness here.

In the square in front of the Gongyuan, hundreds of sedan chair men and errand servants have been gathered, which are servants who serve the examination officials in the next period. As the Ming Dynasty's talent ceremony, the cost of the examination is very huge, only in the account book of the household department, there are nearly 100 items such as the repair fee of the Gongyuan Temple, the handling fee of the examination items, the supply fee for the banquet of the examination, the supply of the family fire fee in the examination room, the labor fee of the craftsmen in the examination site, and the daily expenses of the examination.

There are as many as 66,640 catties of firewood used for heating and cooking in the test site alone, as well as 32,700 catties of charcoal, 33,000 catties of coal, 18,000 catties of straw, and 4,130 catties of reeds...... The cost of the test is huge, which can be seen from this.

Needless to say, the chief examiner and chief examiner were given 16 horsemen to take care of his daily life and diet during the examination, and listen to his dispatches. The leader was a team leader named Chen Laoliu, who led the crowd to greet him, and led the horse to ask the search officer to get on the horse. This horse is one of the two high-headed horses for the search and inspection officer to ride during the examination, and there are two red satin horse mattresses, two white fans, two large umbrellas, two beds, two green silk umbrellas, and sixteen red silk silks, all of which were received in advance by Chen Laoliu and others, and carried them on their backs to enter the tribute courtyard with him.

At this time, all the officials parted hands, began to enter the tribute courtyard under the encirclement of their respective servants, only to see that there is also a memorial arch in front of the gate of the tribute courtyard, inscribed with the words of 'Tiankai Wenyun', behind the archway is the gate of Yuan, there is a wooden fence next to the gate, and there are soldiers to guard day and night, to prevent idle people from entering and leaving. Entering the middle of the gate is the gate of the Tribute Courtyard, the gate is divided into three doors on the left, the middle and the right facing the south, and the main gate hangs the 'Tribute Courtyard' plaque of the Emperor Taizu's imperial pen in person.

The curtain officials enter from the left side of the door, after bypassing the wall, it is the instrument door, and the instrument door is the dragon gate, only to see that the two black doors are embedded with the two gilded characters of "dragon" and "door" respectively, showing that this is the place where the reader 'fish leaps over the dragon gate'. But in fact, after entering the Dragon Gate, whether you can Teng Jiao Qifeng and not to mention, it is certain that you can sweep the floor, because the Yongdao in the Dragon Gate is the place where the candidates are searched.

In the past, the corridor was a layer of houses that could not be seen at a glance, the number houses were dense and narrow, wide and not to be seated, densely packed like a beehive, there were 100 rooms in each row, arranged into a long alley only four feet wide, there was a gate at the mouth of the alley, and there was a toilet at the end of the alley. During the examination, the lifters ate and drank Lazar here.

From the avenue between the houses to the north, there is a very majestic building in the middle, which is the public hall. This public hall is the landmark building of the outer curtain part of the Gongyuan, which is the place where the chief examiner invigilates the examination during the examination, and the wings on both sides of the public hall are the office of the outer curtain officer who is responsible for the discipline of the examination room, the invigilation and the processing of the examination papers. After that, there is the residence of the curtain officials.

Wang Xian found a place to live, and walked around accompanied by Chen Laoliu, only to see that the wall of this tribute courtyard was one zhang and five feet high, full of thorns, and there was a high watchtower.

"It's a strict defense against the lift!" Wang Xian couldn't help but sigh.

"Hehe...... "Hehe Chen Lao Liu is a small banner of Long Xiangwei, and he doesn't know that this young Lord Wang is the boss of Beizhen Fusi, seeing that he is polite, he has no scruples when he speaks: "Haven't you heard of the saying that there are policies and countermeasures?" ”

"Naturally, I did." Wang Xian said quietly: "Could it be that under such strict prevention, there are still people who can't cheat?" ”

"Naturally, there is, and not individually." Chen Laoliu said with a smile: "It's not a small boast, since the early years of Yongle, I have been on an errand in the examination room, and I have experienced the county examination, the government examination, the hospital examination, the township examination, and the meeting examination. ”

"You might as well talk about it," Wang Xian glanced at him with understanding, and said, "Well said and rewarded." ”

"It's easy to say," Chen Lao Liu saw that this young adult was very good, so he said like a few treasures: "The first one to say this tricky method is to take the test." This is mainly a loophole in the recognition of the name, as long as the appearance is roughly similar, there is a possibility of passing the substitute test. The person who takes the test is called a gunman, and some people specialize in this as a profession, and they participate in the county, government, and hospital examinations for others, and they can generally follow the lì tong guò, which is called 'a green onion'. This is very common in the examination of Xiucai, almost three or four out of ten. There are also substitute exams for the township test and the will test, but because it is too difficult, it is less, but one and a half of ten people can still be found. ”

"There are two or three hundred people," Wang Xian said, "It's really a lot." ”

"Two or three hundred people are township exams, and there are fewer exams." Chen Lao Liu hurriedly explained: "After all, it is too difficult to find people who are not qualified but have the ability to take the tribute test. ”

"As long as you strictly recognize this, you can still find it out, right?" Wang Xiandao.

"I can find out some of it, but there is a way I can't recognize it." Chen Laoliu said: "That is" Longmen Adjustment Papers', so that the candidates and gunmen can enter the examination room innocently, and after entering the venue, the two will exchange test papers and answer each other's questions. However, the price is too great to buy people to give up a Chinese-style opportunity. ”

"After the exam, add another room-by-room identification, won't it be solved?" Wang Xiandao.

"Seems like it can." Chen Lao Liu thought about it.

"Go on." Wang Xian nodded and let him continue.

"Then there is the 'entrainment', there are all kinds of methods of entrainment, in order to avoid the purpose of the dragon gate search, it depends on whether it is hidden secretly, or the search is thorough." Chen Lao Liu said with a smile: "Anyway, the small ones are searched from the ears and eyes, in the hair, in the soles of the shoes, in the cushions, in the candlesticks, and in the flatbread, and the most unique one is to pull out a cheat sheet from the **** of a candidate......"

Wang Xian was disgusted for a while when he heard this, and hurriedly said, "What else?" ”