Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 709 Your Grandma!
Xia Lin wasn't the only one troubled by the questions; Emperor Jingtai was as well. Although his exam was from the Northern Province, it was indeed much easier than the Southern Province exam.

But as simple as it may seem, it's no less sinister, even bordering on suicidal. It makes no secret of the Li Tang dynasty, stating that their division of the empire constitutes treason, but why didn't the Great Wei dynasty send troops to attack? Test takers need to consider this from multiple perspectives and complete their answer.

Did you know that Emperor Jingtai almost cursed in the examination hall? He could imagine how many students would point their fingers at him and call him a coward, a piece of trash, a dog's piss. He would definitely investigate who set this damned, hellish question and exile them until the north wind sweeps across the land and the grass withers.

"Damn it..."

Just as Emperor Jingtai uttered his curses, the proctor walked over and tapped his desk a few times with a stick: "Candidates are not allowed to make noise. If there is a next time, the exam papers will be confiscated."

Of course, Emperor Jingtai wasn't the only one hurling insults; stories about someone's mother were popping up everywhere. People forgot all about propriety, morality, and exam discipline, and some were truly unable to control themselves...

Emperor Jingtai sat there, pen in his mouth, arms crossed, looking up at the sky. He was thinking that if the Northern Examination was so easy compared to the Southern Examination, it was already disgusting. He imagined how terrifying the Southern Examination must be. He couldn't help but laugh out loud at the thought that Xia Daosheng must be picking his toes and worrying about it.

After a while, people in the examination room started getting up and abandoning the exam, cursing and swearing. After all, compared to the poetry, songs, and essays before the reform, the new questions didn't treat the candidates like human beings at all. Those candidates who were completely unprepared couldn't even understand the questions.

However, some people were prepared, but ultimately many still failed at this stage.

Although everyone was cursing and swearing, their hearts quickly calmed down. Among those who gave up the exam were not only children of ordinary people, but also many children from wealthy and powerful families. Some of them even hugged their parents and cried loudly. Seeing this scene made almost everyone feel much better, because those who were once high and mighty had finally fallen from the clouds. It's not that there will never be another person who relies on bloodline limits, but from this moment on, they will probably have to live in the shadows.

When the exam time arrived, around 6 PM, the bells of Jinling City rang three more times, the exam papers were collected, and Xia Lin walked out of the exam room feeling dizzy. The person who greeted him was still Sister Dayun.

Speaking of today, Da Yun is dressed in women's clothing, truly a beauty of unparalleled grace. Although petite, she stands there like Diao Chan or Xi Shi, and in terms of looks, Da Yun has never met her match.

"How is it?"

"Once I find out who set the questions, I'm going to test him on the design and construction of the atomic bomb."

"What kind of bullet?"

"Atomic bomb! Damn it."

Although Da Yun didn't know what an atomic bomb was, he could tell from Xia Lin's exasperated expression that this exam was not an easy task for him.

This made Da Yun very happy...

"Looks like things aren't going well."

"It's alright." Xia Lin walked forward on her own, while Da Yun stepped forward: "There are still two games left, can you handle it?"

"do not know."

The next two tests were arithmetic and physics, which were not a big problem for Xia Lin. It was the humanities test that completely drained him. He went back, ate something, and went to sleep.

Emperor Jingtai was no better off. He returned to the palace, silently took a bath, ate a bowl of braised noodles, and then lay down on the bed without moving.

Zhang Zhongchun was the only exception; today's questions were a piece of cake for him, and he was taking the Southern Paper, the same paper as Xia Lin.

He even had the energy to go to a tavern for a drink, where all he could hear was cursing; almost everyone was discussing the exam questions and cursing the person who set them.

Among them, the two questions, "The Bear Smashes the Pig" and "The Revitalization of the Jia Family," which Xia Lin found disgusting, were the focus of the discussion.

At first, Old Zhang didn't pay much attention, but after a couple of cups of horse urine, he started talking more. Just then, he overheard them discussing the revitalization of the Jia family.

Old Zhang laughed heartily: "You're all wrong."

His shout drew everyone's attention, and soon someone came up to him: "Senior said we were wrong, but we don't know where we went wrong?"

Old Zhang picked up his wine glass and took a sip: "The Jia family couldn't be revitalized, no matter who took over. This question isn't about putting yourself in the shoes of the Jia family head, but about putting yourself in the context of the dynastic change at that time. What do the four families in the Dream of the Red Chamber represent? They represent nobility, gentry, and maternal relatives. With the change of dynasties, how could maternal relatives possibly revitalize the family? When you're answering this question, don't focus on that one small point. You need to broaden your perspective and put it into the context of these aristocratic families."

His words were truly enlightening, and some people immediately began to beat their chests in frustration. A short while later, someone suddenly realized that the speaker was Old Zhang. "Prime Minister Zhang! It's Prime Minister Zhang!"

Upon closer inspection, everyone realized it was indeed Zhang Xiang. Their initial shock was immediately dispelled. They might have been somewhat skeptical of others, but since it was Zhang Xiang who said it, there was no room for doubt.

In addition, Zhang Xiang himself was a leading figure among the new youth and a spokesperson for the new student class. He had extremely high prestige among the people, and his appearance quickly made the small tavern full of people.

Everyone pleaded with Zhang Xiang to answer their questions. Old Zhang, being a boastful man, saw that people were praising him so much, so he simply started explaining the questions to them right there.

"The question about the bear hitting the pig seems unrelated, but it's actually a cognitive question. You first need to know where the event took place. As the saying goes, 'Read ten thousand books and travel ten thousand miles,' and here's the journey of ten thousand miles." Old Zhang carefully analyzed the location of the bear hitting the pig for the young students.

After some analysis, it was not only necessary to know the location where these two species appeared at the same time, but also how heavy a bear that could kill a pig must be. The analysis then pointed to the area near the Da Xianbei Mountain in northern Goguryeo, which is near the place where the Tuoba family rose to power.

Once the location is determined geographically, you can look back at the question. At this point, the question becomes simpler, and you can directly grasp the core issue: how to boost the economy and people's livelihood in the area north of Shanhaiguan.

Old Zhang was speaking eloquently upstairs, while the students below were silently taking notes. Unbeknownst to them, there were already local envoys from Goguryeo among them.

Although the question made them very nervous, it must be said that the person who could become prime minister was indeed quite capable. His governance policies were very suitable for the local characteristics and were able to bring about rapid development in the Goguryeo region in a short period of time.

After finishing explaining one test paper, it was already late at night. When Old Zhang was about to go back, he was stopped by several envoys from Goguryeo.

"Prime Minister Zhang," the envoy bowed respectfully to him, "I am deeply grateful for your words today."

Old Zhang suddenly sobered up and silently took a step back: "Who are you?"

“We…” The envoys exchanged glances: “We are envoys from Goguryeo.”

Old Zhang almost shouted that there was an assassin, but he held back in the end. He coughed and asked, "What is it?"

"It is like this, our king... wishes to invite Prime Minister Zhang to be his guest. Does Prime Minister Zhang have any free time these days?"

"I should present my credentials. It is not appropriate for me, a subject of the Great Wei, to meet a king of a foreign land."

After saying this, Old Zhang quickly ran away. The messengers didn't dare to chase after him, fearing they would be misunderstood, arrested, and beheaded. They could only look at each other and watch him leave.

On the second day, when the world's king of mathematics took the stage, Xia Lin's doomsday truly arrived. You can make up stories if you don't know the humanities subjects, but if you don't know math, then you really don't know it.

The first question is a math common sense problem. A bridge has a load-bearing capacity of 700 jin (approximately 350 kg). An 800-jin (approximately 400 kg) cow wants to cross the bridge. What should be done?
This one question eliminated 40% of the candidates. Emperor Jingtai chewed up four pens in frustration before finally coming up with the idea of ​​"slaughtering the ox, dividing it into pieces, and sending it over."

As for Xia Lin and Lao Zhang, they both finished answering the questions smoothly, especially Xia Lin, for whom this level of math was no problem at all.

Although it took a bit more effort from Lao Zhang, he was a geometry genius, and the answers to some complex geometry problems could appear directly in his head.

The final problem is a proof problem, and it's incredibly difficult... The problem states that two children are throwing needles at a piece of paper. The needles are one inch long, and there are equidistant horizontal lines on the paper. The two children throw the needles a total of 3,094 times, and the number of needles that intersect the horizontal lines is 985. The divisor is 3.15 inches, and the result is the circumference of a circle. Prove that this is the answer.

Old Zhang, however, could immediately visualize the problem in his mind...

We always said that Lao Zhang was a genius, but it never really came out because he hadn't done any math problems.

He could even automatically arrange these numbers into symbols and coordinate axes in his mind. Why? Because art is an extension of mathematics, and mathematics is the most beautiful pattern. He substituted each character into the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches to perform integral calculations, and then easily solved the problem. More importantly, he also wrote notes below.

But others couldn't do it. Even Xia Lin couldn't solve this problem because while calculus could be found online, there were no corresponding writing precedents, and he hadn't learned about the symbol quadrants set up by Jiangnan Dao Academy for solving these kinds of problems. He could just write an answer and hand it in, completely wasting his time...

As for Brother Jing, his Northern exam was actually quite easy; it was much simpler. But this is not the fault of the Northern students. They had never studied at the Jiangnan Academy. If you put them in calculus class, they would have rebelled on the spot, believe it or not.
It's worth mentioning here that, apart from Jiangnan Circuit, Lingnan Circuit and several other southern regions also used the northern examination papers. Jiangnan Circuit was the only one with unusually difficult questions. Although some might think this is unfair, it is actually the fairest option. Otherwise, the entire court would be monopolized, which would be another form of aristocratic power.
This was a method that everyone came up with together after Xia Lin described the story of the Donglin Party to the Ministry of Rites...

But who knew that Xia Lin would be the first to fail on the final, most difficult question? He felt he probably couldn't outscore his students and their descendants from Jiangnan Province...

(End of this chapter)