Guiyang Prefecture, Gongyuan.

It has been ten days since the provincial examination. Several paper marking officers are still busy reviewing the test papers under the candlelight. Each face shows painful expressions, whispering each other and cursing secretly, but they do not dare to stop the work at all, because the strange old man with a serious face is staring at them, not even giving him a chance to take a breath.

It is no wonder that these people complained that the number of examiners was too small, and there were only six examiners in total, and there were as many as 5,000 students in the provincial examination, each with fourteen questions in three exams, and all of them were more than 200 words. It was very difficult to complete such a large amount of work within the specified time. Fortunately, the officials were lazy and easy to worry about. Generally, they just carefully reviewed the first test papers, and the subsequent ones were mostly given grades based on the impression of the first test.

However, on the first day of the start of the paper marking, the old man Huang Daozhou solemnly announced that all the paper marking officials must carefully review the second and third test papers, grade A and above must be reviewed by the examiner in person. If anyone is found to be unscrupulous, the salary will be fined in the minority, and the salary will be directly dismissed or even imprisoned.

This made all the examiners suffer. Their workload suddenly doubled. In order to complete the task, they had to work overtime and work day and night. For ten days, they ate and slept in the tribute school. They ate very simple, only slept for two or three hours a day, and spent the rest of their time reviewing the test papers. If they were not allowed to take the test papers out, they would probably have to bring the test papers even if they were on the big account.

"Ten days, what kind of life do we live? We suffer much more than those candidates. This is the hateful zodiac. If it weren't for him, how could we suffer so much? We can easily finish it in at most five hours a day, but now we have to do eight to nine hours a day, and sometimes even ten hours a day. This is simply not a job that humans do..."

The reviewers cursed in their hearts, but they did not dare to pause at all, because Huang Daozhou had an assessment method, and everyone's workload was strictly regulated every day. As long as they could not complete it, they would be punished immediately. And they worked hard and only barely completed it every day.

In order to avoid wasting time by Huang Daozhou's re-examination, at the beginning, many paper reviewers deliberately lowered the test papers that were originally classified as A. However, after Huang Daozhou discovered it, he was severely criticized, and no one dared to do this again.

However, there were not many test papers for Class A, and they did not appear again in the following few days.

This also made the examiners relax. They hoped that there would be no A-level test papers in their hearts. At most, it would be embarrassing to pick up school officials in Guizhou. What does it have to do with them?

Wang Shen, the judge of the paper, was one of them. He finally found a feeling of the paper marking these days, and the candidates' rankings were still not surprisingly low. In this day, more than 100 pieces of B were changed. The rest were grade B, and even many were grade C, D, etc. There were even dozens of blank papers among them, which made him feel secretly happy. It was a great luck to encounter such a workable and work-intensive test question.

"It seems that I can finish the work early today, hehe, so I can sleep for an extra hour, nourish my energy, and do the finishing work tomorrow. This abominable life of marking papers is finally over..."

Wang Shen was very proud, which led to his good mood. When marking the papers, he also relaxed the requirements accordingly and changed some test papers that were originally from B to B.

However, a test paper was placed in front of him. These were the five test questions in the third exam. The twelve scrolls were all covered with fly-headed small calligraphy.

Just a glance, Wang Shen couldn't help but feel a little headache because in the test papers he reviewed, few people wrote so much, which means it took a lot of time to review the test paper.

There are actually some tricks to review the imperial examination papers. The first thing is to look at the format first. If the format does not match, no matter how well it is written, it is useless. In fact, there are so many people taking the imperial examination, and a considerable number of candidates fell here. So even though they write a lot, as long as they do not match the format, they will only end up being rated as inferior.

However, what disappointed Wang Shen was that the format of this candidate was completely consistent with that, and no problem could be found in the answering standards alone.

This means that he cannot finish the test paper quickly, so he can only review it carefully and carefully.

"Well? We must first settle the country before fighting foreign countries, but it is not in line with the current situation? We must grasp both hands now, and both hands must be strong? What is this? Yang Ge's strategy of implementing the strategy of fighting foreign countries, must first settle the country before fighting foreign countries, has almost succeeded. Unfortunately, the good situation has failed. This test paper is simply a sensationalist, but the words of the candidate are still sharp, so give it to him for B."

"This debate between China and the barbarians is even more outrageous. It means that the ambition of the Qing Dynasty has the ambition to annex the Ming Dynasty, and it cannot compromise no matter what? How is this possible? The Qing people just planned to do the land outside the pass and the wealth of our Ming Dynasty. They kept robbing food, but it was ridiculous to say that it had the ambition to annex the Ming Dynasty. It was really too high, right? This one was also rated as the first one."

"This theory of integrity is very good, grand and magnificent, rather than surrender, demonstrating the style of my Confucian scholar. He also made a statement with Mencius's "wealth and honor cannot be lust, poverty and humbleness cannot be moved, and mighty and force cannot be surrendered". It is so wonderful that it should be A, but if it is A, you have to go to Mr. Huang to review it personally. This is too troublesome. Well, why not look at the latter first. If all other articles are B, then I will just rated this article as B. Anyway, even if it is A, only this article will not change the overall situation, and there is no hope of being admitted..."

"This judgment of loyalty to the king and Shunjun is a bit bold, which is simply incredible. For thousands of years, the saints have taught us to pay attention to the Three Bonds and Five Constant Permanences. The status of the king and father is second only to the heavens. However, this candidate actually said that Shunjun is not the same as loyalty to the king, but rather a flattering minister. This is simply a bit funny. If someone with such thoughts is allowed to participate in the imperial examination or even the palace examination, my Guizhou will definitely become a joke, and it will be a lower-level minister."

"Well? What is this in the last article? The Taoist instruments are discussed together, and they dare to propose that Taoism is the body and instruments are used. This is simply a perverse theory, which is intolerable!"

Thinking of this, Wang Shen couldn't help but get up and showed the test paper to other examiners. He also said with a smile: "Sir, there is a crazy student in Guizhou. This is a new thing that has not been encountered in many years..."

When several people around me were dizzy when they were reading the papers, they heard something new and stopped quickly to hear Wang Shen tell what happened.

But at this moment, a cough came, and then a low voice shouted: "What are you doing if you don't mark the papers? You dare to make noise here, what are you so brave!"

When several people heard this, they stopped talking and hurriedly started working again.

Wang Shen didn't dare to say anything anymore. He decided to list this article as C, completely shaking the hope of this crazy student's victory.

But Huang Daozhou said in a deep voice: "Mr. Wang, what kind of strange text have you seen? He actually reacted like this? Let me take it for me to see."

"Yes, sir." Wang Shen did not dare to disobey and immediately gave this article respectfully to Huang Daozhou.

Huang Daozhou looked at this article quietly, but after reading it, he remained silent. After a while, he sighed softly: "It's indeed a bit shocking, but he has some courage and has the style of a scholar in Donglin. This article looks good, but the judgment is indeed a bit contradictory, but it is still a bit unreasonable to determine the order of C. The order of this article is not easy to determine. By the way, where are his other articles? It may be a good way to calculate the order of the other articles."

Wang Shen quickly sent several other articles to Huang Daozhou and handed them over to him for review.
Chapter completed!