It has been an important military center connecting the north and the south since ancient times. At this time, Xuzhou City was already overcrowded both inside and outside the city.
Originally, there were tens of thousands of local candidates in Xuzhou. With the influx of scholars from all over Shandong and Kaifeng, the total number of candidates in Xuzhou reached 15,000.
Fortunately, the Xuzhou magistrate and officials at all levels were well prepared. In March, they not only built more than 20,000 sets of tables, chairs, and benches, but also set up ten temporary examination rooms in the open space outside Xuzhou City.
Although the examination rooms are simple and simple, the roofs are all thatched, and there are no walls around them. They are only covered with curtains. However, each examination room has ten large compartments, which can accommodate 2,000 people in total. Therefore, facing 15,000 people,
of candidates, Xuzhou officials did not panic at all.
They have no control over where these candidates live after they come to Xuzhou.
Tomorrow is the day of the college examination, so both scholars from other places and local candidates in Xuzhou have already arrived in Xuzhou.
With so many people, the inns in Xuzhou city will definitely not be able to accommodate them. In fact, the rooms in the inns in the city have long been booked by big families from all over Xuzhou, and almost all the guests staying there are ladies and so on.
Most of the servants of wealthy families, such as those in charge of accounting offices, stayed in the homes of ordinary people in the city. Those ordinary people could only sleep in thatched huts outside the city accompanied by their families.
Those who didn't know thought that refugees besieged the city again in the Ming Dynasty, and the small merchants and hawkers in the city also took the opportunity to make a fortune.
When the scholars from out of town arrived, there were no places to stay in the city, let alone inns or B&Bs, or to set up thatched huts and sleep outdoors. They were all immediately dumbfounded.
Fortunately, these scholars had money, so in the end they had to choose to live in a village farther away. They waited until the night before the imperial examination and hired villagers to carry them overnight to the examination center outside Xuzhou city.
Compared with the relaxation of the civil servants, the thousands of households garrisoned in Xuzhou felt tremendous pressure. Xuzhou is a military town with a thousand garrison troops, but these people want to maintain the order of ten examination rooms, and Xuzhou
The security in the surrounding areas is really stretched, so Xuzhou's garrison of thousands of households had to remove another thousand people from various counties and hired two hundred village women to help. However, I was still very nervous and frightened, worried that something would happen then.
error.
On the first day of February, before dawn, countless candidates rushed to their respective examination rooms. As for the registration, it was almost done yesterday.
The civil servants are only responsible for guiding these candidates to their respective examination rooms. There are ten examination rooms, two of which are for women, seven are for men, and the last examination room is a backup.
At this time, countless candidates had lined up in a long queue outside the examination room. They held their vouchers in their hands and were searched by soldiers one by one before entering the examination room.
Around the examination room, there is a soldier standing guard every twenty steps. Each compartment is also patrolled and supervised by five soldiers. Each compartment can accommodate about two hundred people. Each seat is spaced two meters apart from the front, back, left, and right. It is almost difficult to
Peep into other people's test papers.
Candidates are not allowed to bring anything other than writing brushes and abacus. Scratch paper and ink will be provided by the examination room.
The seven men's examination rooms are arranged together, while the two women's examination rooms are on their own side.
At this time, there were more than 2,000 women queuing outside the two women's examination rooms. Although the crowd of onlookers was blocked a hundred meters away, the obscene laughter from the crowd still made all the women lining up blush.
, I was very nervous and cramped, and even the timid ones wanted to run away.
These women vary in age, some are ladies in their thirties and forties, and some are young women in their early twenties. The majority are girls over ten years old who have not left the court, and there are even several girls as young as seven or eight.
However, all the women were disguised as men, wearing scholar's gowns, and their hair accessories were combed in a men's style, with just a hair tie.
If it weren't for their petite stature, almost all of them being born into wealthy families, and their fair and tender faces, I might not be able to tell that they were all women.
There were also some women with gauze scarves covering their faces, who looked extremely awkward. It was these women who provoked the crowd of onlookers who were far away, making them burst into laughter from time to time.
These female candidates, all with only a writing brush stuck in their waists, and a very few of them holding abacus in their hands, entered the small hut next to the examination room one by one, and were inspected and frisked by the hired village women.
The two hundred village women were only responsible for body searches and order in the examination room. The garrison was still in charge of the outside. The people in charge of the two women's examination rooms were two female guards from Nanjing.
Although the weather has gotten warmer in February, the clothes on my body are still very thick, which undoubtedly increases the time for body searches, especially in the two women's examination rooms, which are still very tight even in the straw shed.
"Quickly, take off all your outer clothes."
"Ah! Why do you still need to take off your clothes?"
"This is a rule. If you don't take it off and check it carefully, how will we know if there is writing on it?"
"Hurry up, don't wait any longer, there's still a queue behind you."
In a thatched hut, two tall and thick-looking village women were in a bad mood. It was obvious that they had great hatred for these ladies in their hearts. Now that they finally had the opportunity to make things difficult for them, they would not let it go.
In order to prevent these ladies and ladies from retaliating in the future, almost all the two hundred village women covered their faces with cloth. This was also allowed by the two female guards. The main reason was that they were worried that these village women would have worries and would not be able to let go and did not dare to strictly supervise.
The person who was being harassed was a young woman in her early twenties, with tender skin and tender flesh. She looked like she was born into a wealthy family. Seeing the fierce and fierce masked strong women constantly urging her, she could only tremble and take off her long gown.
Come down.
"Take it off quickly, what are you doing?"
A strong woman took the gown, checked it inside and out, then threw it on the table aside and continued urging.
The little woman had no choice but to take off her clothes again, and finally she was left with only her bellyband and panties. She clasped her hands on her chest and shivered from the cold. She burst into tears and regretted taking the exam.
The two strong women did not dare to really embarrass him. They checked carefully before letting her put it on. They could only be regarded as being too strict.
Because in the past, during the imperial examination, provincial examination and general examination, you also had to take off your clothes and examine them carefully.
The little woman hurriedly finished dressing, then quickly took the writing brush and entered the examination room with tears in her eyes. Then she found a seat and sat down. Her lips were a little purple from the cold, and her body was still shivering from time to time.
The women who came in before were all in similar condition, and many ladies regretted not wearing a cloak.
Although the examination was relatively slow, two strong women worked in groups, and each group only had to be responsible for about 20 people, so it only took half an hour for all 2,000 people to be searched and entered the examination room.
Almost all the male candidates in the other seven examination rooms had completed their body searches and entered the examination room. With the sound of a cannon above Xuzhou City, the soldiers uniformly distributed the examination papers.
After the test papers were distributed, another bowl and a piece of white paper were distributed on each table. Finally, some ink was poured into each bowl, and then the candidates picked up their pens and dipped them in ink.
However, after receiving the test paper, most candidates looked dumbfounded and confused. They looked at it for a long time before they knew what to do and how to answer the questions based on the instructions written on the test paper.
