Chapter 66 Preparing for the Provincial Examination

In March, the spring scenery was full of spring, the grass was lush, the ground was fragrant, and it was extremely gorgeous.

Wei Guangde also left Pengze County and returned to Bengshanbao, and began to live a study life that had been repeated for more than a year.

Sun Fuzi had known that Wei Guangde had passed the county exam, but Wei Guangde did not come to the private school for several days after the county exam results were announced.

It was almost mid-March when Wei Guangde came to ask Sun Fuzi for guidance with a pile of essays.

Many of the essays made Sun Fuzi's blood pressure soar.

After the county exam, Wei Guangde and Zeng Yuanrui went to pay homage to Tang Xianzun together. In fact, the students who passed the county exam this time went to the county government to pay homage during these two days, so it was not abrupt for them to go there.

Wei Guangde stayed in Pengze County for a few more days until his uncle and father took their men to the dock and boarded a large ship and went down the river. Wei Guangde and his mother packed their bags and returned to Bengshanbao.

The fleet that departed from Jiujiang this time was obviously much smaller than the previous year, and the size was about half. Wei Guangde saw that the ships behind were still loaded with food and grass.

Come to think of it, although Zhenjiang has a lot of food, most of it is grain transported northward through the border, and it is naturally impossible to feed the soldiers of the garrison.

Fortunately, the additional grain reserves collected by the government in the past two years are along the Yangtze River and the Grand Canal, and it is just right to allocate a batch to the army at this time.

The news that the Japanese pirates gathered in Zhoushan has been sent to the capital by the Nanjing Military Department in an emergency of 800 miles, and the news has also arrived. The strategy of the current Nanjing Military Department Minister was recognized, and he agreed to gather the troops of the southern garrisons to prepare for the encirclement and suppression of the Japanese pirates.

Yes, the report of the Minister of Military Affairs to the court not only wrote about the current tense situation along the Zhejiang coast, but also expressed his plan to take advantage of this rare opportunity of the gathering of Japanese pirates to send troops to encircle and suppress them.

For the Japanese pirates, they are all scabies for the emperor and officials in Beijing. In their view, as long as the officers and soldiers arrive, the bandits will surrender.

In the minds of scholars, although they look down on military officers and clerks, bandits still feel great psychological pressure when they see these people.

If you rob and kill civilians, it is only a violation of the criminal law of the Ming Dynasty. If you dare to fight against the government troops and yamen runners, it is rebellion.

This is how most scholars of this era see it, at least this is how they understand domestic wars.

Those unruly people will naturally commit crimes, and it is not surprising. The same rice feeds a hundred kinds of people. You can't expect everyone to have the same noble moral qualities as these scholars.

But if you attack the government, it is impossible for them to rebel.

Therefore, whether it is the officials in Beijing or the adults in other provinces, although they all know that the guards are corrupt and lack of combat troops, they don't think that it will be a big deal to encircle and suppress some Japanese pirates. Can they still not win?

Zhang Jing's report also said that if more than 20,000 elite soldiers from the surrounding guards were gathered to encircle and suppress the Japanese pirates, the Japanese pirates would not be able to escape.

After Wei Guangde handed in the articles he had been working on for the past ten days to Master Sun, Master Sun called Wei Guangde aside and criticized him severely. What kind of shit did he write? There were problems with the ideas and intentions of several articles.

Then he taught Wei Guangde how to revise them step by step, saying that those statements were wrong.

They were all relatively unpopular questions. In fact, Master Sun only taught based on his own understanding, and the effect was just that.

"Do as I say, and revise them carefully when you go back."

After a long speech, Master Sun sat down and took a sip of tea to moisten his dry throat.

"How did you answer the test questions this time? Tell me."

Now that he was free, Master Sun began to ask Wei Guangde about his answers.

Wei Guangde ranked 35th in the county exam, and he knew it a long time ago, but he was not clear about the exam paper.

Wei Guangde honestly told Master Sun about his answers. Master Sun had no impression of the answers except the test poems at the end, which should have been put together by Wei Guangde temporarily.

Although it's not very good, at least I passed the county exam.

"Next, you should organize all the previous articles and prepare for the next prefectural exam."

Master Sun reminded: "You know why I asked you to write. Go back and organize these articles according to my instructions, rewrite them and give them to me.

Don't ask what your classmates who have passed the exam wrote. I usually ask you to write so that you can have something to use during the exam."

"Student understands."

Wei Guangde hurriedly bowed again, jokingly, since he started writing, Master Sun told him not to show the articles he practiced on weekdays to others easily. At that time, Wei Guangde actually had a guess, and he also made a plan for his imperial examination based on this.

Holding a large stack of manuscripts, Wei Guangde returned to his seat, sorted the manuscripts and put them in his schoolbag, and then picked up the Spring and Autumn Annals on the table and continued to read.

During the lunch break, three candidates who had taken the county exam like Wei Guangde gathered together to talk and laugh.

This time, ten classmates took the county exam, six failed, and the four of them were talking about taking the prefectural exam later.

The date of the prefectural exam has been set, and it will be held on April 16th, with two sessions, which is also the practice of Jiujiang Prefecture in the past.

After the county exam, the latest admission list will be reported to the prefecture. They need to arrive in Jiujiang Prefecture ten days before, and still complete the registration in the ceremonial room and get the admission ticket.

"I heard that there will be thousands of people participating in the prefectural exam, and the dozens of places are a headache just thinking about it."

"Remember it well, and memorize it well. I hope the questions in the prefectural exam will be the same as those in the county exam."

Yes, the questions in this county exam were not tricky, but very common. They were all common questions, and they were also the ones predicted by Master Sun. However, after comparing with each other, only four out of ten candidates passed the exam successfully.

Well, internal competition actually started in the Ming Dynasty.

"Guangde, when are you going to Jiujiang Prefecture?"

Someone asked at this time.

Wei Guangde's family is a military household. When he goes to Jiujiang Prefecture to take the exam, Jiujiang Guard will definitely provide him with convenience. Let's not talk about anything else, just talk about the transportation along the way. With Wei Guangde going to Jiujiang Prefecture to take the exam, it's not bad.

"Depart on April 5th, at the Pengze County Wharf, there will be a thousand households sentry boat going to Jiujiang Prefecture Guard that day."

Wei Guangde naturally understood their thoughts and said casually.

This boat was also arranged by his uncle before he left. At that time, his cousin Wu Dong will go with him and accompany him to the Zhang family in Jiujiang Prefecture until the end of the prefectural exam.

Jiujiang Guard actually has preferential treatment for the children of the Guard who are taking the imperial examination. At least the Guard has a special guest room near Jiujiang Prefecture, which is convenient for the children of the Guard to take the examination, and the food and accommodation are free.

Of course, this free of charge is only nominal, and the tips should not be small, but the location is really good, not far from the examination hall.

However, Wei Guangde will definitely not stay there, but will only go to Zhang Mansion, after all, it has been arranged long ago.