Great Zhou Wensheng

Chapter 16, First Place!

The lobby of the county college.

Smoke curled up from the bronze incense burner.

Chief examiner Cai Chao saw that Master Pei Jingyi had already made a final decision, confirming that the millet in this answer sheet was an extremely rare type of official document.

Cai Chao swept his wide sleeves across the stack of red scrolls on the desk.
His gaze swept over the four assistant examiners bowing and waiting below the hall, as well as the other four assistant examiners dressed in dark blue official robes—Shen Yanqing, the chief clerk; Zhou Wenyuan, the county magistrate; Cui Mingyuan, the clerk; and Zhao Tieshan, the county lieutenant.

"In your wise judgment, Lord Pei, this answer sheet is hereby designated as the first-place [First Class]!"

Cai Chao chuckled and asked, "Do any of you gentlemen have anything to say?"

The sound of brocade rustling against each other immediately filled the hall.

"I second that!"

County Lieutenant Zhao Tieshan was the first to clasp his hands in greeting, his black iron wrist guards clanging against the rhinoceros belt and jade buckle.

Registrar Shen Yanqing remained silent for a moment longer.
He had observed for a long time that the powerful families of Xue, Li, Han, Lu, and Cao in Jiangyin County were already secretly vying for the top spot in the county examination.

Magistrate Li Mo sat in a grand chair in the hall, eyes closed, resting without uttering a word.
The uninvited old master Pei Jingyi!
There were also twenty-seven local worthies standing on the green steps outside the hall, all staring intently at the county examination.

Shen Yanqing was very suspicious of who had answered the questions on this exam paper.

Li Shi Sanlang?

Or perhaps it was the Xue family's wealth and status?
"Lord Cai, we have no objections!"

Shen Yanqing waited until he saw Cai Chao preparing to pick up his purple brush and make annotations before he, along with County Magistrate Zhou Wenyuan and Clerk Cui Mingyuan, bowed deeply.

"good!"

Cai Chao smiled and wrote "[First Grade, Class A]" on the answer sheet.

The cinnabar nib pressed heavily on the four characters "First Class A", its bright red color glaringly striking.

Only after the annotations and judgments are completed are the anonymous marks on the exam papers allowed to be removed.

Cai Chao personally picked up the ivory knife used for cutting paper, and slowly pushed the blade along the sealed strip, the paper roll making a barely audible tearing sound under the blade.

"Let me see who will be the champion in the first round this year!"

He smiled and muttered to himself, but suddenly his face froze and his words caught on the tip of his tongue.

When the name of the person in the nameless area came into view, the three characters "[Jiang Xingzhou]" immediately caught the eye.
A flicker of panic flashed deep in Cai Chao's eyes, and his spine, hidden beneath the python pattern on his official robe, suddenly straightened. He stammered, "Jiang Jiang Xing Zhou?"

"Jiang Xingzhou?"

Upon hearing the sound, Magistrate Li Mo, who was sitting in a grand chair, opened his eyes wide and stood up abruptly, causing the silver fish pouch at his waist to clink and jingle.

The usually composed magistrate turned ashen-faced in an instant.

This top-ranked exam paper wasn't written by Li Sanlang or Li Yunxiao.
In order to prepare for today's test, he had Cai Chao leak three words from the test question last night, giving Li Yunxiao a whole night to study and answer them.

How could this supposedly sure-fire exam have turned out like this?

The room was deathly silent.

Shen Yanqing, Zhou Wenyuan, Zhao Tieshan, and Cui Mingyuan, the four deputy examiners, looked at each other, quickly returned to their seats, and remained silent in perfect unison.

This county-level civil service exam in Jiangyin was rife with undercurrents, involving several powerful and influential families.

Those few low-ranking officials dared not speak out.

Ten steps outside the hall, beneath the green steps, the brocade robes of the twenty-seven local worthies rustled, and they stomped their feet in anger.

"My literary talent, Han Yugui's, is known to all. My talent has always surpassed that of all the students in Jiangyin! How could I lose to a poor scholar!"

Elder Han was filled with shock and anger.

"Nonsense! Cao An of the Cao family is the true chosen one of heaven!"

The elderly Cao clansman, visibly angry, glared and waved his bamboo cane, shouting incessantly.

"This"

Cai Chao's inner garment was soaked with cold sweat beneath his official robe.

Looking at Jiang Xingzhou's exam paper, and then at the golden millet, a symbol of national importance, on the desk, his expression was somewhat bewildered.

It shouldn’t be!

He clearly leaked the exam questions to Li Sanlang. With such a huge advantage, and given Li Sanlang's considerable talent, why wasn't he the top scorer in the first round?!
The chief examiner has the power to set questions, grade papers, and determine rankings.

When the skill level of Mongolian candidates is not significantly different.

So, who is superior and who is inferior, and their ranking, is usually determined by the examiner.

Li Yunxiao's literary skills were outstanding among all the students, and with such an advantage, he should have shone brightly in the county examination.

That's why he dared to agree, accepting the inkstone and other valuables from Magistrate Li Mo, and promising to secretly help Li Yunxiao, the third son of the Li family, to win the top spot in the imperial examination.

However, this answer sheet was flawless and was actually written by Jiang Xingzhou. His literary skills even condensed into a seed of national literature—Golden Millet!
The millet ears created by other students using the millet script were at best milky white or pale yellowish-white, several levels below average.

The county-level examination questions tested knowledge of writing and comprehension, and tested one's understanding of the principles, comprehension, and broad knowledge!
Jiang Xingzhou's understanding of the character [黍] far surpassed that of the other students, completely overwhelming them.

How can this be good?

Cai Chao was filled with fear and didn't know what to do.

He worried that Li Sanlang would miss out on being ranked first among the candidates in the county examination.

Although Jiang Xingzhou was a scholar from a poor family, he was protected by the Duke of Xue's mansion, and the county magistrate Li Mo could do nothing about him. In his anger, he took his anger out on the Cai family and cut off their livelihood of transporting grain and selling salt, which would have been a disaster.

With all the officials present and Master Pei observing coldly, he had no room to tamper with the grading.

Don't panic!
There are two more matches to go. If Li Yunxiao can gain a slight advantage in these two matches, I can help him rank first.

I hope Li Sanlang doesn't fail his exam.
Upon realizing this, Cai Chao dared not look at Magistrate Li Mo's ashen face, and forced himself to calm down and compose himself.

Unless Li Yunxiao fails the next two exams, then things will be really bad.

Even if he wanted to help, he was powerless to change the situation.

Half an hour later.

The five examiners quickly finished reading all the remaining answer sheets.

"Li Yunxiao's paper is excellent, with pale yellow millet ears. Based on the luster of the millet grains, he is ranked second in the first class!"

"Cao An's answer was also correct; he deserves the third place in the first tier!"

For the top five students in the first tier (Grade A), the ranking is the most important, and the answer sheets must be carefully selected.

The ranking of the last 300 students seemed somewhat arbitrary.

After all, the top five in the county examination would receive a reward, while the lower rankings would offer no benefit and there was no point in competing for them.

Chief Clerk Shen Yanqing dipped his brush in vermilion ink while yawning, a pile of files casually stacked on the table.

After reading Jiang Xingzhou's flawless answer sheet, the other students suddenly seemed utterly uninteresting.

With a list of candidates in his hand, the educational commissioner Cai Chao stood atop the ten-step blue staircase and read aloud the names of the top three hundred students in the first session.

"This examiner hereby announces,"
A total of 1,200 students from this county participated in the county examination. The top 300 students passed the first round of testing, and their current rankings are as follows:
Jiang Xingzhou, first place in Class A!

Li Yunxiao, second place in Class A!

Cao An, third place in Class A!
Han Yugui, fourth in Class A!

Lu Ming, fifth in Class A!
Gu Zhimian, tenth in Class A!

Xue Fu, Class B, 10th!
The top 300 students from the first round will remain to continue with the second round of exams.

The remaining students whose names were not called are hereby dismissed and ordered to leave the county academy immediately!

"Open the gate—release the rafts!"

The gates of Jiangyin County College were opened, allowing the more than 700 rejected Mongolian students to leave, a process known as "rafting".

The more than seven hundred students who had been rejected looked dejected and dispirited. The imperial examination they had just taken felt like a calamity, and they reluctantly left the county academy examination hall.

(End of this chapter)