Great Zhou Wensheng

Chapter 149 Jiang Xingzhou, First Round, Class A! Exam Question Two: Spring River.
Inside Examination Room No. 2, Class A, Jiangnan Examination Hall
Xie Qihe, the eldest son of the powerful Xie family of Jinling, sat alone before the examination desk, dressed in an elegant white robe.

The faint morning light illuminated his furrowed brows, the pen tip hovering above the exam paper, ink about to drip.

"Strategy Discussion: Countermeasures to Eliminate Demons in Taihu Lake?"

Xie Qihe stared at the autumn examination questions, fine beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.

After Jiang Xingzhou moved into the Jiangnan Examination Hall after the poetry gathering, he tricked the powerful families of Jiangnan at the banquet in Duojing Tower. Later, he followed Wei Guanlan to suppress the Taihu Lake demon army and was always protected by the two officials!

Jiang Xingzhou has become the number one threat to the powerful clans of Jiangnan!
The twelve powerful clans of Jinling were dissatisfied and secretly plotted for a long time to try to save face for their clans, but they could not find a good opportunity.

In the past two months, there have been almost no means to suppress or deal with Jiang Xingzhou.

Now, this autumn examination hall is the last place where the Jiangnan aristocracy can "suppress" Jiang Xingzhou.

Once Jiang Xingzhou passes the provincial examination with top honors, he will be like a dragon emerging from the abyss, and no one in Jiangnan will be able to rival his brilliance. All will be over!
The heavy responsibility of suppressing Jiang Xingzhou naturally fell on Xie Qihe and Wang Moqing, two of the "Four Great Talents of Jiangnan".

Do everything in our power to win the top scholar title in the autumn imperial examination!

Xie Qihe's knuckles turned white, and the pen barrel left deep red marks on his palm.

He knew all too well that although they were both among the Four Great Talents of Jiangnan, there was an insurmountable gap between him and Jiang Xingzhou, and the difference was not just a little bit.

"Lord Wei, this is clearly a freebie question tailor-made for Jiang Xingzhou."

Xie Qihe felt a bitter taste in his throat, and the ink spread across the Xuan paper, creating a dark cloud. "The first place in the first round of the autumn examination will surely be won by Jiang Xingzhou."

Jiang Xingzhou's answer to this policy question was the standard answer—the governor used this very strategy to quell the demon in Taihu Lake.

Among the ten thousand students in Jiangnan Road, none could rival Jiang Xingzhou.

Looking at the hesitant words under his pen, Xie Qihe suddenly felt that the whole page was full of ravines—he didn't even have the qualifications to compete with Jiang Xingzhou on this question.

The morning light swayed in the examination room, casting his dejected figure on the blue brick wall, as restless and anxious as a trapped beast.

He stared at the still-wet answer sheet on the table, and suddenly chuckled softly—a chuckle that contained three parts resentment and seven parts determination.

"The first match in the Jia-A League is hopeless!"
The only option is to give up!

Only through the second and third rounds of testing can one truly compete with Jiang Xingzhou.

Xie Qihe looked up at the blinding sunlight outside the eaves, his Adam's apple bobbing.

Jiangnan Examination Hall.

Outside the Zhigong Hall.

A thin mist shrouded the courtyard of the examination hall, which was paved with blue bricks.

In Jinling, numerous aristocratic families, including scholars in plain silk robes and gentry in dark blue official robes, paced back and forth, patiently waiting for the first performance to end.

Hanlin scholar Wang Su's cloud-patterned boots rolled back and forth over the fallen leaves on the steps, while Xie Yuheng's ivory tablet burned in his palm.

The heads of the twelve powerful families of Jinling are all gathered in this small space, waiting for the first rafting.

"Thank you, sir!"
"Your son, Qihe, is one of the four great talents of Jiangnan. His literary talent is unparalleled in Jinling. He will surely be the top scholar in this imperial examination, a prize in the Xie family's hands!"

"If Young Master Qihe were to pass the provincial examination with top honors, he would surely soar to great heights and rise to the ranks of high-ranking officials in the capital!"

Several wealthy and powerful men surrounded Xie Yuheng, a Hanlin scholar, with beaming smiles, clasped their hands in obsequious gestures, and their words were full of flattery.

—Although the Wang and Xie families of Jinling have suffered repeated setbacks recently, their thousand-year-old heritage is beyond ordinary comparison.
The Wang and Xie families have stood tall in Jiangnan since the Six Dynasties period. Despite the changing times and political turmoil, they have always remained at the top of the Jiangnan aristocratic families.

His disciples and former officials were scattered throughout the court and the countryside. His clan possessed a collection of 100,000 volumes of books and thousands of acres of fertile land. They even secretly controlled the profits from the Grand Canal, salt and iron, and silk and brocade, and their influence was countless.

Even if the family experiences occasional setbacks, it is merely a dragon lying in wait, waiting for the right time to strike.

"Gentlemen, you flatter me by praising the flourishing literary culture of Jiangnan. I am merely fortunate to be among the four great talents of Jiangnan, and to have achieved the second-highest score in the imperial examinations is already a stroke of luck."

"I would never dare to covet the title of the top scholar in this imperial examination!"

Xie Yuheng, the head of the Xie family of Jinling, stroked his beard and sighed softly, a hint of embarrassment flashing in his eyes, while his hands, hidden in his wide sleeves, were clenched so tightly they turned white.

His heart was bleeding.

Originally, this was before Jiang Xingzhou appeared.

The Xie family clan was established by pooling the resources of all twelve branches of the family.

They invited retired vice ministers from the Six Ministries and renowned scholars from the Hanlin Academy to provide guidance and support to Xie Qihe's poetry and prose, and lavishly supported several highly capable ghostwriters, enabling him to rank among the Four Great Talents of Jiangnan.

All of this was to ultimately elevate Xie Qihe to the position of "Jieyuan," the top scholar in the autumn imperial examinations of Jiangnan Province.

Once you obtain the title of Jieyuan in Jiangnan Province, you can go to the capital to take the imperial examination for Jinshi.
They could then leverage the power of the twelve prominent families of Jiangnan to pave a promising career path for Xie Qihe in the Ministry of Personnel of the Holy Dynasty—becoming a Vice Minister of the Three Provinces and Six Ministries was not out of the question.

Who would have thought that Jiang Xingzhou, a scholar from a humble background, would suddenly appear and stir up a storm in the literary world of Jiangnan!

Now, scholars all over the city are copying his poems and essays from Dazhou and Mingzhou!

The two officials, Wei Guanlan, the Prefect of Jiangnan Circuit, and Du Jingchen, the Education Commissioner of Jiangnan, were completely captivated by him, praising his talent and achievements.

Xie Qihe's promising future was crushed to dust by Jiang Xingzhou. His hopes of becoming the top scholar in this imperial examination were extremely slim.

The Xie family's strategic plans of the past two decades are gradually crumbling into nothingness.

Whenever he thought of this, his heart ached as if it were being torn apart, and his hatred was hard to dispel.

Noon.

"Dong-dong-dong-!"

Three clangs of the gong reverberated throughout the examination hall, and the burly voice of the yamen runner pierced through the examination chambers: "The first session of the autumn examination, collect your papers immediately!"

In an instant,
Upon hearing this, Jiang Xingzhou silently put down his pen and sealed the exam paper in the exam bag.

In the tens of thousands of examination rooms, the pens stopped abruptly. The scholars, whose ink was not yet dry, either put down their pens in disappointment or hurriedly copied the last few words. Some even stared at their unfinished writings, their faces pale and their fingertips trembling.

Before long, hundreds of yamen runners dressed in black robes hurried into the examination hall.

The still-fragrant examination papers were sealed in vermilion examination bags and sent in single file to Hengjian Hall—the core examination center located behind Zhigong Hall, separated from the outside world only by a "dragon gate," yet it was like an insurmountable chasm, and unauthorized personnel were strictly prohibited from stepping inside.

—This is the place where the names and rankings were determined.

A single stroke of vermilion ink can elevate a person from humble origins to a high position in the officialdom of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

A single dismissal can shatter a scholar's dreams.

Inside the hall, the lights are brightly lit.

The chief examiner, Prefect Wei Guanlan, sat upright at the table.

The two deputy examiners were Du Jingchen and Zhou Dunshi.

The ten examiners—prefects or educational administrators of the ten prefectures south of the Yangtze River—lined on either side.
The mountain of exam papers in front of the desk had been covered with the names and hometowns of the candidates, leaving only the ink-written characters like ants, waiting for judgment.

Governor Wei Guanlan did not look at the remaining scrolls, but instead found a scroll among the anonymous ones.

—This is Jiang Xingzhou's famous "Three Strategies for Exterminating the Demon of Taihu Lake"!
This strategy is sharp and incisive, every word like a knife, except for that top scholar from Jiangnan who dared to slay demons among the demon army of Taihu Lake!
Throughout the entire Jiangnan region, no one dared to write such an astonishing strategy verbatim into the exam papers—anyone who dared to plagiarize this strategy would be dismissed.

Wei Guanlan tapped the table lightly with his knuckles, his gaze lingering with satisfaction on the ink marks that penetrated the paper.

Suddenly, he clapped his hands and laughed loudly: "Such a brilliant and unparalleled strategy should be ranked first among the top categories!"

With a stroke of the vermilion brush, a bright red "甲一" (Grade A, Level 1) appeared at the beginning of the scroll.

"This piece is a testament to the exceptional talent displayed throughout Jiangnan, and its renown is well-deserved!"

Deputy examiner Du Jingchen smiled knowingly, and the other examiners also nodded in agreement.

In the first session of the provincial examination, the merits of the students were discussed and rewards were distributed!

This is not only a reward for Jiang Xingzhou's primary contribution in eliminating the demon army on Taihu Lake, but also a high recognition of this ingenious plan that is worthy of being recorded in the "Records of Jiangnan".

Only the second and third rounds of the autumn provincial examinations truly tested academic talent!

In the afternoon.

The sun was setting in the west, and the Dragon Gate was tightly shut.

Inside Hengjian Hall, thirteen chief and deputy examiners, dressed in crimson and purple official robes, sat quietly like bells.

These high-ranking officials from Jiangnan, all graduates of the imperial examinations and members of the Hanlin Academy, possessed lightning-fast minds, able to review tens of thousands of examination papers in the blink of an eye. An hour ago, the examination papers were piled up like mountains, but now they had all been reviewed.

The red brush paused, the ink still wet, and the only sound in the room was the rustling of pages turning.

—The first performance has ended, and the announcement of the names is imminent.

Outside the hall, hundreds of powerful families and wealthy gentry from Jiangnan had already surrounded the examination hall.

The gentry, dressed in brocade robes and jade belts, gripped their name cards tightly, their gazes sharp as knives, fixed on the vermilion gate adorned with carved dragons and phoenixes.

Xie Yuheng, the head of the Xie family, stood at the front of the crowd dressed in a crane-feather robe, his fingertips unconsciously stroking the jade pendant at his waist.

Standing behind him was Wang Su, the patriarch of the Wang clan. When the eyes of the two Hanlin scholars met, it seemed as if sparks flew in the air.

Sudden--

With a creak, the Dragon Gate opened.

The entire court, adorned with red and purple robes, stamped their feet in unison, while hundreds of gazes from wealthy and powerful men of Jiangnan were fixed on the tightly closed Dragon Gate.

Three gongs rang out, their sound echoing throughout the Jiangnan Examination Hall.

"The first round of the Jiangnan Autumn Examinations—names announced!"

The officiant, holding a yellow silk list, stood before the Dragon Gate and, with a booming voice, announced the names of those to be judged, his voice echoing throughout the entire Jiangnan Examination Hall:
In an instant, the gaze transformed into a tangible pressure, forcing the person to retreat three steps.

"[Autumn Examination,

The first round of the provincial examination!
Examination Room No. 1, Class A, Jiangzhou, Jiang Xingzhou, First Place!

The sound waves exploded.

The entire room fell silent!

This was expected by everyone; apart from Jiang Xingzhou, no one else would dare to compete for the top spot in this match.

"Examination Room No. 2, Class A, Jinling, Xie Qihe, Second Place in Class A!"

Examination Room No. 3, Class A, Jinling, Wang Moqing, Class A, Third Place!

Examination Room No. 7, Class A, Suzhou, Tang Yanqing, Grade A, Fourth Place!

Examination room number 17, Hangzhou, Xu Canming, fifth place in Class A!

Each time a name is announced...
A chorus of cheers and sighs erupted from the crowd of test takers.

"It seems there's hope for Asia Yuan and Jing Kui!"

The two Hanlin scholars, Xie Yuheng and Wang Su, exchanged glances, and their tense expressions finally eased slightly.

The ranking in this first round of the autumn examination is not based on whether the article is better or worse, but on the actual achievements!

The Wang and Xie families of Jinling were "forced" to donate military funds for the 100,000-strong Jiangnan navy's expedition to Taihu Lake. The Xie family donated 700,000 taels of silver, and the Wang family donated 650,000 taels. The silver flowed into the military camp like water.

Although they were "forced" to donate.

However, their contribution of hundreds of thousands of silver coins was enough to place Xie Qihe and Wang Moqing, the two scholars, in the top three of the first round of the autumn imperial examination!

"It seems that the governor, in the end, still remembered the favor of the Wang and Xie families who contributed money and did not deliberately suppress the young people of Jinling!"

Xie Yuheng said indifferently, casually brushing off non-existent dust from his brocade robe.

Outside the Jiangnan Examination Hall, members of the Tang family from Suzhou raised their arms and shouted, while an old servant of the Xu family from Hangzhou wept with joy.

"The first round, consisting of candidates A, B, C, and D, will select the top four thousand scholars! They will remain in the examination hall for the second round!"

The official flicked his sleeves, his voice like cold iron: "Those ranked after four thousand, whoever is not mentioned in their examination room or name, will be disqualified!"

Before the words were even finished, cries of weeping filled the Jiangnan Examination Hall and its surroundings.

Those six thousand scholars who failed the first round of the autumn imperial examinations stood up from their examination rooms, their faces ashen.

"Defeat! Another defeat!"

A piercing wail ripped through the air above the examination hall.

The old scholar Li Qing knelt down in front of the examination room, his ten fingers digging deep into the ground until his knuckles turned white.

He looked up at the list hanging high, and turbid tears mixed with blood rolled down his cheeks.

"Three years after three years"

In Li Qing's mind, a stack of yellowed examination failure papers appeared, the oldest one with ink faded to a light brown: "Thirty years of hard study, and I couldn't even pass the first round of the autumn imperial examination."

Some people were so enraged that they tore up their paper and pens on the spot, while others staggered and fainted, collapsing inside the examination room and being dragged out of the Jiangnan Examination Hall by the yamen runners.

Inside the Jiangnan Examination Hall, the sundial's pointer had quietly moved to the third quarter of the hour of Wei (1-3 PM).

—The second, even more brutal autumn imperial examination is about to begin.

Inside the Zhigong Hall, the air was filled with the fragrance of sandalwood.

Governor Wei Guanlan took his seat in the main position and lightly tapped the table with his fingertips.

The examiners held their breath, and the only sound in the hall was the ticking of the water clock.

The first round of the autumn imperial examinations will recognize achievements and reward the students; there's no need to overthink the questions.

The second round was naturally to test the scholars' true talents and abilities—selecting talent for the country was the primary purpose of the imperial examination!

He hesitated for a moment,

Suddenly, he unrolled the scroll, picked up his brush, and dipped the wolf-hair brush in thick ink, creating powerful, elegant strokes on the snow-white Xuan paper:

[Autumn Imperial Examination, Second Session:]

Several months ago, this governor ascended Duojing Tower and hosted a banquet for prominent families and gentry from Jiangnan, raising funds and supplies for the 100,000-strong navy.

With ample provisions for the 100,000-strong navy, a feeling of boundless joy filled him. Leaning on the railing, he gazed into the distance, taking in the breathtaking scenery of heaven and earth.

Spring's warmth lingers, the great river surges on; flowers bloom everywhere, the moon casts its golden light, and the night is enchanting.

All students should compose a long poem, song, or prose piece based on this scene.
As he finished writing, Wei Guanlan smiled slightly, quite satisfied.

—I still remember that night at the banquet, when Jiang Xingzhou used two articles that defamed Mingzhou to force the powerful families of Jiangnan to bow their heads and pay donations, and millions of silver dollars and grain were all put into the Jiangnan treasury.

He was filled with excitement, and as he leaned on the railing and gazed into the distance, his heart swelled with heroic sentiments, but he ultimately failed to compose a poem.

Today, with this as his topic, he wants to see which of the talented scholars from the ten prefectures of Jiangnan can express the thoughts he had left unfulfilled!

"This is the question from the second round of the autumn imperial examination!"

Wei Guanlan raised his eyes and swept them over the officials below the hall. His voice was like the clinking of metal and jade, “I want to see real writing.”

The vermilion seal was pressed heavily onto the inscription paper.

—This pen will eventually be put to the test of the talent of the Jiangnan scholars.

The examiners below the hall all changed their expressions upon seeing this question.

"This question is extremely difficult!"

Ordinary imperial examination poems were usually limited to one or two characters such as 'spring,' 'autumn,' 'river,' 'mountain,' 'lone boat,' and 'crow in the cold,' allowing talented scholars ample room to express themselves through their writing.

"If strictly defined as 'the lingering warmth of spring, the mighty river rushing forward; flowers blooming everywhere, the moon casting golden light, the night enchanting.'"
—While the imagery of this question is beautiful, the poem's title, a full twenty characters, confines the test-takers to a limited space.

"It was almost like shackles on the candidates' hands and feet, forcing them to write a magnificent essay within an extremely narrow space."

This level of difficulty is extraordinary!
I'm afraid the students will be scratching their heads in frustration!

Several of the assistant examiners were already sweating profusely when they saw the question.

"However, the governor's question is indeed a true test of the students' abilities in Jiangnan!"

The academic commissioner, Du Jingchen, trembled slightly, nearly plucking out a few strands of his beard, and exclaimed in admiration.

(End of this chapter)