Chapter 865 Surprising changes in the examination room
After a sumptuous lunch, Zhuge Liang walked to the door of the compartment, stretched and moved a bit, then reported to the inspector and took a nap.
This nap was so long that when the inspector passed Zhuge Liang's cubicle in the afternoon, he wanted to open the curtain and tell him to get up.
Fortunately, while the inspecting examiner was still hesitating, Zhuge Liang had already opened the curtain with a comfortable look on his face, and bumped into the examiner at the door.
"Examiner?"
"Don't take too long a lunch break, so as not to delay your answer."
"Ah, yes, I slept a little longer, but... I have almost finished answering the questions. If I answer too fast, I'm worried that I will have to sleep all day tomorrow."
Seeing that Zhuge Liang's expression didn't look like he was faking it, the examiner was stunned. He walked to Zhuge Liang's desk, picked up his test paper and looked at it.
Good guy, it has only been a day and a half, and this candidate has actually completed five test papers. When he was inspecting the candidates' papers in other places, the most he had completed was only three and a half!
This examinee...is his name Zhuge Liang?
It's really unusual.
The inspection examiner didn't look at his test paper carefully, but looked at the paper he had written on it, silently put it down, nodded slowly, and left without saying anything.
So all afternoon, Zhuge Liang answered three big questions carefully, slowly and leisurely, considering them word for word, and finally got his own perfect answer when night fell.
After dinner, Zhuge Liang took a short rest, answered another question, and then turned off the lights and took a rest. He was still the first candidate to turn off the lights and take a rest in the entire exam alley that day.
To be honest, Zhuge Liang's behavior in the past few days has also fallen into the eyes of several candidates around him. Although everyone is in a state of high nervousness and concentration, and is not interested in other people, Zhuge Liang's too chic behavior still makes people
There were some ripples in the hearts of the surrounding candidates.
Why is this guy so relaxed and at ease?
Is he really here for the exam?
For Zhuge Liang, this day passed uneventfully, but on the third day, Zhuge Liang really started vacation mode.
There was only the last question left to answer. No matter how "intensively" he worked, it would only be completed in one morning. The remaining time would be enough for him to carefully check the questions he had answered.
After lunch, the lunch break was over, and he really had nothing to do. He looked at the questions he had answered over and over again. Although he came up with many new solutions to some questions, there was no need for more solutions.
Already.
Being extremely bored, he put away the examination papers, put them in the examination basket aside and lay down on the stone bed, thinking that it would be a good idea to close his eyes and rest his mind.
When the sun went down and dinner was about to be served, Zhuge Liang got up and prepared for dinner. He was really satisfied with the food he had eaten in the past few days. If the limited space for activities hadn't made him unable to stay, he would have really wanted to make this place his own.
Canteen, visit every day.
Just as he was thinking, he suddenly saw three patrol examiners running past him in a hurry, and then two more patrol examiners ran over with two soldiers of the Central Forbidden Army.
This movement was not too small in the quiet examination room. Zhuge Liang was attracted, and other candidates were also attracted. No one knew what happened.
After a burst of noise, Zhuge Liang saw three or five Forbidden Army soldiers walking from the beginning of the alley to the end of the alley, loudly asking all candidates to stay seated in the compartments and not move around, otherwise they would lose their qualifications for the exam.
Zhuge Liang was surprised, but he still sat firmly in the cubicle, waiting for the news.
After about two sticks of incense, dinner began to be served in the examination room. When the inspector who handed out the dinner came over, Zhuge Liang quickly asked what happened in the examination room just now.
The inspection examiner's expression remained unchanged and he shook his head.
"Don't ask too many questions. You will know when you leave the examination room tomorrow. This matter has nothing to do with you. Answer the questions with peace of mind and don't do anything else."
The examiner didn't want to say more, and Zhuge Liang didn't know what happened. He made a little guess and thought there might be something wrong with some candidates.
After dinner, with some thoughts, Zhuge Liang moved his body a little, and before he could do anything else, he saw a group of Forbidden Army soldiers walking over with some papers in their hands, and entered one by one.
Candidates' cubicles.
A Forbidden Army soldier also entered Zhuge Liang's compartment, holding a stack of paper and a pen. He looked at the paper and then at Zhuge Liang.
"Ask your questions and answer them carefully."
"……knew."
"Name."
"Zhuge Liang."
"Character."
"Kong Ming."
"age."
"nineteen."
"Hometown."
"Yangdu County, Langya County, Xuzhou."
"Father taboo."
"My late father Zhuge Gui."
"Is Zhuge Jin your lover?"
"Eldest brother."
"Is Zhuge Jun yours?"
"Third brother."
"Well, it's no problem. Sit down."
The Imperial Guard soldier picked up a pen and crossed out something unknown on the paper, wrote a few more words, and then turned around and left.
Zhuge Liang frowned even more, always feeling that something big happened in the examination room.
Shaoqing, he was about to ask the examiner to take a break, but suddenly he heard a cry and howl not far away, which attracted the surrounding examinees to look sideways and leave the cubicle to see what happened.
The inspection examiners rushed over quickly and asked all candidates to return to their cubicles and not leave, otherwise they would be disqualified from taking the exam.
After a while, it was completely dark and all the candle lights were on. Zhuge Liang stopped an inspection examiner and asked him to take a rest.
This time, the examiner did not agree immediately. Instead, he walked into Zhuge Liang's compartment and looked around. Then he looked Zhuge Liang up and down and asked him where the examination papers were.
Zhuge Liang opened the examination basket and took out the examination paper to show it to the examiner. The examiner looked at it and returned the examination paper to Zhuge Liang.
"Okay, you can rest."
Zhuge Liang hesitated for a while and asked, "Dare I ask the examiner, did something happen just...?"
The examiner shook his head.
"Don't ask too much, we will know tomorrow."
"clear."
Zhuge Liang took the paper and frowned as he watched the examiner leave.
No way?
Could it be...
Are any test takers cheating?
Were those Forbidden Army soldiers checking the identity of the candidates just now?
Someone pretended to be someone else and entered the examination room to take the exam?
Can something like this happen?
With a trace of strange emotions, Zhuge Liang lay on the bed. After thinking about this matter, he felt that it had nothing to do with him. He should concentrate on the exam and rest. As for other things, the court had to worry about it.
So, he fell into a deep sleep.
Early the next morning, as soon as he woke up and opened the curtains to wash up, he was startled by the scene in front of him.
Why did so many Imperial Guard soldiers appear?
During the exam a few days ago, there were hundreds of candidates in one examination lane, with only twenty Forbidden Army soldiers and five patrol examiners patrolling back and forth. It felt like the number was already quite large, but today, why did it feel like the number of Forbidden Army soldiers had suddenly increased?
I'm afraid there will be more than thirty people, right?
There was one standing some distance away, and another standing some distance away, with a solemn face, unsmiling, and sharp eyes looking at the candidates around him, as if he was wary of them.
Could it be that all the imperial guards in the capital have been dispatched?
Many candidates woke up early in the morning and opened the curtains. When they saw a capable armed soldier standing outside their cubicle, they were stunned. They thought they had done something bad and were going to be arrested, but they found out that it seemed to be just normal supervision.
Is this really normal?
Zhuge Liang speculated on various possibilities while eating breakfast.
After breakfast, Zhuge Liang packed up his examination materials and prepared to hand in his papers at the last minute. However, some other candidates were seizing the last moment to write hard and seemed to want to write some more.
Some candidates even looked melancholy, unhappy, or even sad. It seemed that they still had not completed all the test questions until now. The closer they got to the ten-point handover, the more they became crazy and the more they lost their sense of normalcy.
Obviously, for most people, this exam is not pleasant and even a bit torturous. There are really too few people like Zhuge Liang who can complete this exam relatively easily.
When it is time to hand in the papers, the candidates cannot leave their cubicles and must stay in the cubicles until the patrol examiner comes to collect the papers and confirm that they are correct before they can leave the examination room one by one.
Zhuge Liang sat quietly in the cubicle, waiting for the examiner to come to him to collect the papers. After handing in the papers, he waited for the examiner to announce that the candidates in his row could leave, and then he quickly left the examination room with the examination tools he had packed.
Because he left the examination room first, not many people gathered at the door when Zhuge Liang left the examination room.
There were quite a few people in the big square in front of the gate. Many of them were family members of candidates from inside and outside Luoyang City or the surrounding areas. There were also a few people who came to watch the excitement. They were blocked in the big square by the human wall pulled up by the Imperial Army soldiers.
At one end of the building, the main entrance to the examination hall was unusually empty.
But in this empty space, Zhuge Liang saw disharmonious factors.
A large group of people, estimated to be more than a hundred people wearing the shackles used by criminals, knelt down in front of the stone statues of Confucius, Xunzi, Laozi, Mozi and other sages in the main square of the Examination Yuan under the supervision of the Forbidden Army soldiers.
Judging from their attire, it was obvious that they were candidates in the examination room. There were examination baskets with examination equipment beside them, but they...
Zhuge Liang followed the candidates who came out and approached that place. A large group of candidates gathered around and pointed at the group of people.
That group of people lowered their heads deeply, hunched their bodies, and remained motionless.
At that time, Zhuge Liang did not know the truth, but he only learned that this group of people had been discovered for their egregious cheating behavior, which made the emperor furious, revoked their qualifications for the exam, and convicted them, making them repent in shackles before the sages.
Later, when everyone returned to the candidates' dormitory to rest, Zhuge Jun and Zhang Yue came back one after another and told Zhuge Liang the news they had learned. Only then did Zhuge Liang know what had happened.
It turns out that something big happened.
Someone is cheating.
At the beginning, six candidates had problems discovered by the patrol examiner.
It turned out that as the sun was setting yesterday afternoon, while the inspection examiners and the Forbidden Army soldiers were busy serving meals to the candidates, six candidates from Jizhou faced each other in pairs and exchanged examination compartments.
These six people are from the same hometown and are classmates at Jizhou Prefectural School. Three of them have good grades and the other three are bastards with not so good grades.
They agreed that they would find an opportunity to exchange exam cubicles in the examination room every day, and the three people with better grades would help the three people with poor grades answer the questions. As a reward, the three people with poor grades would pay a high amount of money to them.
Three other people.
These six people have been exchanging cubicles for two days, and nothing has happened.
But on the night of the last day, a patrol examiner noticed something was wrong. He felt that there was something wrong with one of them. He felt that the person sitting in this position was different from what he saw during the day.
It's unlucky to say the least.
Originally, this person's problem should not be discovered. The patrol examiners change every day, and there are hundreds of candidates in one examination lane. No matter how good the memory of a single patrol examiner is, he cannot remember each person's specific appearance and seat.
However, this man had a stomachache during the day and asked to go to the toilet twice in a row. The interval was relatively short, and he had to defecate for a long time, which made his legs a little weak, so the patrol examiner had a little impression of him.
The patrol examiner walked over and asked the examinee to raise his face with a frown.
"Are you sitting here? You seem to be... sitting over there during the day, right? What is your last name? Where are you from? How many parents and brothers are you?"
The examiner pointed to the seat opposite, then turned his face. Seeing the frightened look on the examinee sitting opposite, he realized on the spot that something was wrong.
Then he shouted loudly, immediately summoned the Forbidden Army soldiers, pulled out the two candidates, and asked them sharply if they had exchanged cubicles and done something bad.
As a result, the candidate who was recognized by the examiner did not say anything, and the other candidate who was identified was so frightened that he pissed himself and said that they were not the only ones doing this, there were several other people who were doing this too, and they were all in the same group.
He acted alone.
Before the examiner asked any questions, he just told the truth.
So these six candidates who were born in Jizhou were caught in one sweep.
But the matter was not over yet. After the examiner reported the matter to Zheng Xuan, who was in charge of the examination hall, Zheng Xuan was furious. He told Liu Bei the news and interrogated the six candidates himself.
These six cheating candidates were also timid and had not experienced many major events. When Zheng Xuan threatened them, they immediately had a nervous breakdown. They cried and explained the ins and outs of the incident.
It turns out that the three people with poor grades were all from powerful families with some wealth in their hometowns. They had a lot of wealth and a large amount of land redemption money given by the court, so they lived a very extravagant life, and they didn't even care much about their academic performance.
I just want to hang out and have a good time.
After the state school was established, they originally thought about using the connections within the state school, spending some money, getting a graduation certificate, and after graduating from the state school, they would rely on their family connections to get a position in Jizhou——
According to the rules of the past, there was little hope for an official position, but relying on local connections, there was no problem for people of their background to find a small official position.
During the Chaju era, officials returned to the central government, and staff returned to the local government. You, Emperor Liu, played with Emperor Liu, and my local government played with my local government. No one should interfere with anyone else.
Unexpectedly, the situation suddenly changed. The imperial court suddenly reformed and implemented the imperial examination system. Even a small official had to pass the examination to obtain a position. The inspection and evaluation system was abolished. The inspection and evaluation power of local officials was transferred to the central government, and all personnel powers were taken back.
Returned to the central official department.
Want to be an official?
Take the exam first.
Let’s talk about it after passing the exam.
Regardless of how many connections local officials have with local families, what kind of relationships they have, and what kind of promises they made in the past, it doesn't matter now.