When the last test paper of the day was delivered to the official Du Qixi and Du Langzhong, Du Langzhong felt that his mission had been insulted.
As mentioned earlier, his job is to seal the candidates' information on all test papers so that the people who mark the papers cannot see their names, which theoretically ensures fairness.
But everyone else's test paper only has one, and only Qin Dewei's test paper has three. So what's the point of sealing Qin Dewei's personal information?
Such a sensational thing as writing ten thousand words a day will definitely spread out of the examination room. Anyone who sees this test paper can be sure that it was written by Qin Dewei.
Doctor Du sighed, folded and pasted the first six pages of the first sheet of Qin Dewei's test paper, which was the candidate's information, and then sealed it with a seal.
Officialdom is a place that pays attention to formalism. It is not shameful to try to cover up and deceive oneself and others!
Then, the three pieces of paper from the test paper were pasted end to end. After being connected together, it looked like a complete thing.
It's just that the thickness of the test paper is three times that of others, but it's still eye-catching.
So far, all 325 sealed test papers have been sent to Wenyuan Pavilion and are guarded by officers and soldiers.
All the examiners will stay at the Ministry of Rites tonight and cannot go home during the examination period. They will still have to stay at the Ministry of Rites tomorrow night. This is also the rule set in the early years of Jiajing.
Because during the palace examination, if a minister reads the test papers in Wenyuan Pavilion during the day and goes home at night, there will always be rumors and even a fuss.
There have been many such examples in recent years. For example, in the eighth year of Jiajing reign, when Yang Yiqing, the former chief assistant, was reviewing papers, he summoned fellow villager Tang Shunzhi to his home at night.
Of course, he wanted to ask Tang Shunzhi what was written in the test paper and get Tang Shunzhi, who was already a Huiyuan, to get the top prize, but Tang Shunzhi was too shameless to go see Yang Yiqing.
Another example is that in the sixth year of Zhengde, when the former first assistant Yang Tinghe was still the second assistant, he read the test papers in Wenyuan Pavilion during the day and went home at night to meet his son Yang Shen who was taking the exam. Otherwise, how could Yang Shen, the superstar of the generation, be the top pick?
Even famous ministers and virtuous ministers are like this, let alone treacherous ministers.
The imperial examination system of the Ming Dynasty may have been designed to be fair in general, but in recent years, the palace examination has often been compared with the general examination, and the provincial examination is unfair.
Emperor Jiajing was also bothered by the fact that ministers kept in touch with each other after returning home. A few years ago, he issued an edict that the ministers who read the papers would stay together in the Ministry of Rites and were not allowed to go home until the end of reading papers.
On the third day of April in the 14th year of Jiajing, more than a dozen record readers entered the inner court from Chengtian Gate and Meridian Gate, and then came to Wenyuan Pavilion from Zuoshun Gate.
This is originally the location of the cabinet office, but for the past two days it has been used as a place for reading examination papers.
First, the examination papers were handed over. As the chief examiner, Chief Assistant Zhang Fuking did not need to divide the examination papers. The other fourteen examination examiners were all assigned several examination papers. At this point, the official Du Langzhong finished his work smoothly.
Of course, the first batch of test papers, which total dozens of copies, cannot be divided randomly, and there are also default conventions.
These are the test papers of candidates who ranked at the top of the general examination, as well as the test papers of a very few candidates who have been greeted and who have received the focus of big bosses.
There are still more than two hundred small transparent test papers left, which are not distributed for the time being and are piled in the middle hall of Wenyuan Pavilion.
When the paper reader has finished reading the test paper in his hand, he can take a few more copies and continue reading until all the test papers have been read.
So far, the examiners do not know the specific text of any test paper, but they all know that there is a 10,000-word long essay in this palace examination.
After getting the test papers assigned to them, the thoughtful bosses quickly checked the thickness of all the test papers in their hands, and found no particularly thick ones.
Immediately, six or seven more big guys raised their heads, glanced at each other a few times, and then looked at the remaining test papers piled in the middle hall.
They immediately discovered that among the pile of test papers on the central hall table, the top one was obviously much thicker than the normal test paper!
That’s it! The legendary Wanyan test paper! It’s right there!
Immediately, several people could not restrain themselves and stretched out their claws. In an instant, seven hands appeared above the 10,000-word test paper. The scene was a bit embarrassing for a while.
Those who extended their hands were the great scholars Fang Xianfu and Zhai Luan, Xia Yan, the Minister of Personnel, Gu Dingchen, the Minister of Rites, Wang Hong, the Minister of War, Wang Tingxiang, the Minister of Punishment, and Huo Tao, the left deputy capital censor.
Anyone who wanted to take the test paper of Mr. Qin, No. 91, was suddenly exposed.
Master Xia glanced at Zhai Luan and Gu Dingchen in confusion. Others could understand it with their hands. Why are you two weaklings joining in the fun?
Zhang Fujing, the Chief Assistant to the Chief Reading Officer who presided over the examination, pointed to the Wanyan test paper and said: "I will wait for a few people who are interested in this paper to circulate it one by one and then decide whether it can be included in the first class."
According to the regulations for reading the papers of the Imperial Examination, the first-class papers are selected first, and then the cabinet selects the top three from the first-class papers, and the rest are ranked downwards.
If you don't get into the first-class test paper at the beginning, your ranking will definitely not be high.
The seven people, starting with Fang Xianfu, the second assistant, circulated the 10,000-word test paper one by one, and others who did not want to get involved stopped reading.
After circulating it once, Huo Tao, the deputy censor on the left, took the lead in attacking: "I think the grammar of this paper is rough, it cannot be called a good work, and it cannot be rated as first-class."
Wang Ting counterattacked: "But he wrote ten thousand words! You, Huo Tao, were asked to write a book of ten thousand words before nightfall. Do you still care about carving out the words?"
Xia Yan added: "The state selects scholars based on policy, not on their writing! Grammar comes second, and the content should be looked at first."
Wang Hong, Minister of the Ministry of War, raised another question and said: "The handwriting on this test paper is scrawled and careless, and there is no grace at all. How can it be rated as first-class!"
Wang Tingxiang continued to fight back: "But he wrote ten thousand words! If you, Wang Hong, write a book of ten thousand words before dark, do you still care about the calligraphy?"
Master Xia also continued to add: "The country selects scholars based on strategies, not words!"
Fang Xianfu shook his head and said: "This test paper contains many biased accusations and sentences criticizing Zang Fu. The writing in the imperial examination should still be moderate and elegant, and avoid doing shocking and strange things."
Wang Tingxiang still retorted: "But he wrote ten thousand words!"
Fang Xianfu felt that Wang Tingxiang was deliberately causing trouble, and asked angrily: "What does the style of writing have to do with more words and fewer words?"
Wang Tingxiang said eloquently: "As long as you can write ten thousand words a day, it doesn't matter what your writing style is!"
Fang Xianfu scolded: "This man has corrupt moral character and behaves recklessly. He has been lucky enough to escape punishment many times. So what if he can write tens of thousands of words a day!"
Wang Tingxiang asked in confusion: "It seems you know who this test paper belongs to? So you must be unfair, please don't say anything!"
Fang Xianfu: ""
Zhang Fujing was also thinking about it in his mind. If it were ten years ago, when the ceremony was full of smoke and the emperor still fully supported and trusted him, he would have just pressed down the test papers like this.
But now, Zhang Fujing no longer dares to gamble. The emperor is becoming more and more reserved about himself, and the close relationship between the emperor and his ministers is no longer the same as it was ten years ago.
He didn't know if the emperor would hear about Wanzi Cewen, and he couldn't guess how the emperor would react.
If the emperor really had any reaction, he, who was criticized by Qin Dewei before the imperial examination, would be the first to bear the brunt.
Zhang Fujing made the final decision: "Let's put it in the first class for the time being!"
Huo Tao suddenly became anxious, "Please think twice!"
Only Gu Dingchen, the Minister of Rites, secretly thought, based on the knowledge of these people, it seems that he is the winner in the end.
