In a dark alley in the west of the city, Polo Buhua panted and ran to a dirty wooden door and patted the door panel.
"Open the door quickly, I'm back!"
With a creak, the door was opened, and the figure of King Xining was revealed behind the door.
"How, have you asked clearly?" King Xining asked.
Polo Buhua said: "I'm so thirsty, let me drink some water first!"
I ran to the water tank in the small courtyard, took a scoop of water to drink, took another scoop to wash my face, and cursed: "This damn weather, it's so late and it's still so hot!"
The King of Xining closed the door and asked again: "Have you made it clear? Are we Mongolians allowed to participate in the imperial examination?"
Polo Buhua found a stone pier to sit down and said with a smile: "I asked many people, but they didn't mention that Mongolians were not allowed to participate, so that's correct!"
King Xining breathed a sigh of relief and punched the palm of his hand: "That's good. Whether we can get rid of our current life depends on this imperial examination!"
Since the two were released by Zhang Yangquan, they have been wandering around Jiangdu City. At first, they always wanted to sneak into the Zhennan Palace. However, they were discovered by the guards many times and were beaten violently several times, so they gave up their thoughts.
At that time, the two wanted to leave Jiangdu and go to Jiangnan to join their old friends.
As a result, before they had time to set out, they heard that Jiangdu's army was in chaos during their third southern expedition, so they didn't dare to run around.
After waiting for a while, a large area of land in the south of the Yangtze River was captured by Jiangdu's army.
They realized that if they went to the cities under the jurisdiction of the Yuan Army in the south of the Yangtze River, they would be attacked by the Jiangdu Army sooner or later, so they wanted to go to the north of the Yangtze River again.
As a result, a few days ago, the two met Qian Yongren on the street, and learned from the other party that the responsibility for the defeat of Ha Mahjong in Yangzhou was placed on Xining Wang and Tuotuo.
Tuotuo has been exiled to Yunnan, and King Xining is wanted by the Yuan Dynasty for helping the rebels.
The two had no choice but to stay in Jiangdu.
However, they have lost their source of livelihood. After Sun Hong and Cai Han sponsored them several times, they began to avoid seeing them.
The two of them had no choice but to fend for themselves. After selling the last piece of jade pendant, they opened a "yangchala" snack bar on Minghu Street.
Bolo Buhua is very particular about food, especially Mongolian food. Many Han cooks can't make it taste that way, so he often cooks it himself.
Over time, I also developed good cooking skills.
Among them, the easiest thing to make is called sheep chala. Throw the sheep's internal organs, sheep head, and sheep's hooves into a large stew pot, add appropriate seasonings, and cook for a while.
The most important thing here is the heat. If the heat is not enough, the fishy smell will not be removed. If it is overcooked, the soup will be too flavorless.
Polo Buhua cooked the Yangtze La at just the right temperature, and within a few days of opening, the business was very good, especially for people from the north.
The two of them relied on Boluo Buhua's craftsmanship to avoid starving to death and rented a small courtyard in the west of the city.
However, how can two people endure this kind of life for a long time? Sometimes they are recognized by acquaintances, not to mention how embarrassing it is.
So when they heard that Jiangdu Army was going to hold the imperial examination, they all thought it was an opportunity. After all, both of them were Mongolian nobles. Because they were hereditary guards in Jiangnan, they had read Han books since they were young.
In recent days, the two of them spent all the money they earned in bookstores to buy books. They didn't even do business. They stayed up late to read every day. Their only worry was that Jiangdu's army discriminated against Mongolians and wouldn't let them participate.
Now that this last worry was gone, both of them breathed a sigh of relief.
Tomorrow is the first day of registration. The two of them had dinner early and went to bed. Early the next morning, they went to Chengdong Imperial College to register.
The Imperial College is also a recently established yamen. It is located at the east end of Dongguan Street. It was originally the largest bookstore in Jiangdu - Guangding Bookstore.
The literati in this bookstore were all northern literati, and they praised the Yuan Dynasty every day. After Jiangdu's army captured Yangzhou, this group of literati fled Jiangdu, and the bookstore became vacant and was selected as the Imperial College Office.
Guandong Street is very close to the canal, so this street is already busy. In addition, today is the day for the registration of science and technology reports, so the whole street is crowded with three floors inside and three floors outside.
There is a stone archway outside the Imperial Academy and a stone statue of Confucius. The stone statue was recently repaired and has not yet been repaired. It is covered with a large piece of cloth.
The registration point is just below the stone archway. Several officials have set up a few tables and chairs, and there are two teams of city defense guards nearby to maintain order.
Polo Buhua and the King of Xining waited for a long time before they arrived outside the Imperial College and started queuing up to sign up.
Both of them wore Hanfu and had their hairstyle changed to look like Han people, so no one paid much attention to them.
After queuing for more than half an hour, it was finally their turn. The clerk in charge of registration asked about their names, and Polo Buhua answered in a low voice.
"Bolo is not flowery."
Although the voice was small, it immediately attracted a lot of attention. The registration clerk looked up at him and said in surprise: "You, are you His Highness the King of Zhennan?"
This civil servant once worked as a swordsman and pen clerk in the General Manager's Mansion and met Polo Buhua.
The people lining up behind suddenly roared.
"Look, that person is the former King of Zhennan, the Chief Manager of Yangzhou!"
"Hey, the King of Zhennan is nothing. Now Jiangdu belongs to the Han people. There is only the King of Chu, not the King of Zhennan!"
"Hmph! When the Mongolians set up the imperial examination, the South Ranking and the Northern Ranking discriminated against us Han people, and now they are looking down upon us Han people to take the imperial examination?"
"Tatars get out of Jiangdu!"
Seeing the crowd around him getting angry, Polo Buhua's face turned red.
At this moment, the civil servant stood up and shouted: "The king has not stipulated that Mongolians are not allowed to participate in the imperial examination. Anyone who makes any noise will be disqualified!"
Everyone immediately fell silent.
The clerk asked Polo Buhua some more questions, then registered him and the King of Xining, and gave each of them a round bronze medal as big as a thumb, each with a number on it.
Polo Buhua's number is 432, and Xining Wang's is 442. In order to prevent acquaintances from cheating, the numbers of candidates who register together will be separated by ten digits.
The registration period lasted for five days. In the next five days, Polo Buhua and King Xining continued to study hard. They had never worked so hard since they obtained the throne.
In a blink of an eye, the time has arrived five days later.
It was now past mid-August and it was the end of summer. Polo Buhua and King Xining drank a bowl of mutton soup and made steamed buns in the morning, and then went to the Imperial College in high spirits.
There are three examination subjects in total. Sishi is the first one, which tests Ming Jing poetry and poetry. The test lasts until You hour in the afternoon. Food and drink will be provided by the examination room at noon.
The next day, the arithmetic test will begin in the morning and the archery test will take place in the afternoon.
The two came to the Imperial College in the middle of the morning. After showing their bronze medals, they were carefully searched and then led into a row of wooden houses inside the prison.
These wooden houses were just built recently, with only less than ten square meters of space, just for exams.
After the two were taken to their respective rooms, they were locked in the room. Each cabin had a window, and the candidates sat behind the window to answer questions.
After sitting for about two-quarters of an hour, Boluo Buhuagan heard the sound of drums and officials began to hand out test questions.
When the test questions were sent to his desk, he hurriedly picked up the test paper and looked at it, and his heart sank.
Although Boluo Buhua had never participated in the imperial examination, he had seen the test questions of the imperial examination and the provincial examination. The tests were nothing more than poetry, poetry, policy, theory, writing, and Mo Yi.
Poetry has always been the top priority. We give you a question and ask you to write a poem. The test is on diction. Generally speaking, if you are not a smart and knowledgeable person, it will be difficult for you to write a good work!
In order to prepare for today's imperial examination, Polo Buhua composed many poems and sentences on many themes in advance.
Who would have thought that today’s topic would actually be ‘Straight as a Zhusi Rope’.
For this kind of complex question, all the previous backups are useless, so we can only think about it temporarily.
He thought for a long time, but couldn't think of a neat poem. He raised his head and looked at the row of candidates opposite, and found that many people had begun writing furiously, which made him even more flustered.
So I skipped the title of the poem and looked down.
The second question was about strategy. There were three questions in total. He suddenly noticed that there was a number next to the second question, which said 'twenty'.
Looking at the poem in the first question, there is also a number next to it, which says ‘ten’.
He looked down. The third question was about Tie Jing, and the fourth question was about Mo Yi. The numbers next to them were all "fifteen". All the numbers added up, a total of sixty.
I have long heard that this exam is scored. In other words, poetry only counts for ten points, policy theory is the major part, and scriptures and ink meanings are also more important than poetry.
Thinking of this, he suddenly breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the title of the policy paper carefully.