Traveling through time and space to become a child, supporting the family by catching fish and shrim

This is what happened every year after the emperor forcibly reformed the imperial examination system.

The runners from the yamen took the corvée book and checked each candidate one by one when the list was announced. All the candidates who were not on the list, had no one else in the family who could perform corvée, and did not have the money to be exempted from corvée, were arrested on the spot.

The same situation will occur during the provincial and academy examinations.

Because if you fail to pass the exam to become a scholar, you must perform labor service.

In fact, those candidates who failed the county or prefectural examinations and then went to perform corvee labor were luckier than those who failed the academy examinations and then were forced to perform corvee labor.

Because the academy examination would not be held until April or May of the following year, if one failed, one would have to do labor service for a month and would return in July, leaving only one and a half months until the next county examination.

When the candidates returned from their labor service, most of them were half dead. It took them more than ten to twenty days just to rest, leaving them with very little time to review their lessons.

The reason why many old students failed to pass the examination to become scholars was largely due to their labor service.

Officials representing the scholar community in the court have been petitioning the emperor for the past two years, hoping to change the time of the imperial examination so that the candidates can prepare better.

But the emperor disagreed and even dismissed several ministers for this.

Because changing the time back to the original time is equivalent to admitting the mistake to all the scholars in the world.

How could the emperor be wrong?

Another reason is that if the time is changed, the emperor will lose a lot of extra income.

In order to calm the disputes in the court, the emperor also gave a reason that the ministers could not refute.

"I don't need those scholars who only study hard and know how to take exams!"

"If a candidate is truly gifted and talented, then they will never fail the exam simply because they don't have enough time to study."

"Promoting people like this is truly beneficial to the court!"

……

There was so much chaos ahead that Chen Lang asked Li Xiuzhi and Guoguo to stay on the ox cart while he squeezed to the front alone.

After finally squeezing to the front of the list, Chen Lang did not read it from the beginning to the end, but from the back to the front.

Because he felt that with his mediocre level, he would at best be at the bottom of the list, and his name would definitely not be on the first list.

However, after scanning the second list, he still couldn't find his name.

At this time, Chen Lang was a little panicked.

I am the second best...

I didn’t fail the exam, did I?

This is so much fun.

Just when Chen Lang was feeling anxious, a voice exclaimed beside him: "Why are you arresting me? I got it, I got it!"

Chen Lang looked in the direction of the voice and saw two officers dragging a candidate out.

The candidate argued and kept saying that he had won.

The officer was annoyed by the noise and said angrily, "You are a fool! That person just has the same name as you."

"Impossible, you must have made a mistake. I am the one on the list, and he is the one who failed." The candidate roared.

"I get it. You must have accepted his money, right? I'm going to the state capital to sue you for favoritism and abuse of power!"

The officer sneered, took out two "cores" and stuffed them into the scholar's mouth, and the scholar immediately stopped shouting.

A candidate standing next to Chen Lang gritted his teeth and said, "These damned officers! When I get into high school, I will definitely come back and deal with them."

Chen Lang asked in a low voice, "Has that brother really been impersonated?"

"How could this be false?" the other party said, "The man who replaced him was the young master of the Zhang family in the county. How could such an uneducated and unskilled dandy possibly have passed the exam?"

"I heard that the Zhang family spent a thousand taels of silver for this quota."

Someone else said, "Are you crazy? If you dare to say such things, we will arrest you too."

"Since you're on the list, go back. We can't control these things now."

The two left in a hurry.

Chen Lang's face also darkened.

This damn world...

But as the two students said, what can we do now that we know? Can we just report it?

The imperial court wanted money and the merchants had money, so even if the lawsuit was brought to the provincial capital, there was a high probability that they would still lose.

How can a candidate who doesn't even have any academic achievements compete with these businessmen?

Just take care of yourself first.

Chen Lang sighed and returned his gaze to the first list.

There are only ten names on this list, and they are very easy to recognize.

Chen Lang saw his name at a glance, which was the last on the list.

If it were any other candidate, they would be ecstatic to see that they were on the list.

But Chen Lang was not very happy.

Because he didn't want to be too prominent, any name on the list would become the focus of other candidates' research, and even a special "organization" was developed for this purpose.

This organization specializes in studying the candidates who have passed the county, prefectural, and academy examinations over the years. Their specific behavior is similar to "opening the box" in modern online society, which is to dig out the ancestors of these candidates for eighteen generations. Once there is anything that is not in line with the rules, they will report it to the higher authorities.

The principle is, if I don’t have a good life, I won’t let you have a good life either.

The fact that Chen Lang made the transaction is unchangeable and can be easily verified with a simple check.

By then, these guys who have nothing to do after eating will report to the higher authorities, but even if the county magistrate comes forward, it probably won't be of any use.

Chen Lang sighed, turned around and prepared to go back to tell Li Xiuzhi the news.

At this moment, I caught a glimpse of the first place on the list out of the corner of my eye.

Ning Wenxu?

If I remember correctly, he should be from Jing'an County, but why is his hometown listed as Nanhe County on the list?

Is it possible that these days there is already a routine of taking exams in different places?

Chen Lang remembered that when he was in his senior year of high school, several classmates from well-off families transferred their academic records to the Tibetan area because the admission score in the Tibetan area was very low, and one could enter a key university with only 300 to 400 points.

Among them was a notorious poor student who was admitted to the Army Police Officer School!

You know, with his grades, he's not even good enough to get into a vocational school.

It turns out that this routine is also left over from the ancients.

Chen Lang smiled and shook his head, then walked out of the crowd and returned to the ox cart.

Li Xiuzhi held Guoguo in her arms, her face full of nervousness. She wanted to ask something, but didn't dare to.

Chen Lang didn't keep anyone in suspense and said, "It's passed."

Li Xiuzhi breathed a sigh of relief.

Chen Lang sat in the driver's seat and said, "Let's go and meet the teacher."

Li Xiuzhi, who had just relaxed, felt a little nervous again and said, "Just going like this? We haven't prepared anything."

Chen Lang said, "If you bring things with you, it will only make the teacher unhappy."

"It's fine to go like this."

Li Xiuzhi didn't know what to say, and followed Chen Lang nervously all the way to Sheng Mansion.

The door to the Sheng Mansion was half open. The housekeeper stood at the door, eagerly waiting. When he saw Chen Lang, he immediately turned around and shouted, "Young Master Chen and his family are here!"

After Chen Lang stabilized the ox cart, Sheng Chuliang and his wife walked out from behind the door.

Madam Sheng said with a smile, "Xiao Chen, congratulations on being ranked first."

Chen Lang bowed and said, "It's all thanks to the teacher's good training."

Madam Sheng saw Li Xiuzhi and Guoguo and asked, "Are these your wife and daughter?"

"You have a beautiful wife and a well-behaved daughter. Xiao Chen, you are so lucky."