Marquis Changfeng's Mansion, study.

Song Chi, who was originally a book boy, sat in Shen Liangcai's seat.

"Father is away on official business, but he has already told me that he will find you a teacher who is better than Mr. Wang. For the next three days, just do your best and leave the rest to fate."

Shen Liangcai's words showed the attitude of the Marquis' Mansion, and he was very concerned about it as he tried his best to help Song Chi pass the imperial examination.

If Song Chi fails the exam, he will lose the bet and will have to lick Han Yuanzheng's shoes at the door of the Han family. Shen Liangcai doesn't want to see such a scene. He has decided to leave with the female commander after the county exam is over.

They didn't know when they would meet again after this separation. He couldn't take the exam for Song Chi, but he also wanted to do his best to help.

"Need not."

Song Chi shook his head and said, "There are only three days left. It's useless for anyone to teach me."

"That being said, it's better to sharpen your sword before the battle, even if it's not quick."

"Sharpening the gun?"

Song Chi smiled and said, "I do have a spear that shines brightly even without being sharpened."

Shen Liangcai was stunned for a moment, "What are you talking about? You are not a martial artist, where did you get the spear?"

"brother……"

Song Chi said helplessly: "Are you still a man..."

After hearing this, Shen Liangcai understood instantly.

"How could you... say such a thing?"

Shen Liang was sure that Song Chi had really changed. He used to be so honest and would definitely not say such dirty words.

"What's this?"

Song Chi noticed that Shen Liangcai turned around, was it because he was shy?

Not really?

Isn't this how brothers should be? Or... does he not consider me a brother?

Song Chi suddenly panicked and joked too much.

"I didn't say anything... Let's get back to the county exam."

Shen Liangcai said seriously: "The iron must be strong itself..."

"hard?"

"you……"

Shen Liangcai said dissatisfiedly: "Can you concentrate a little? What are you thinking about? If you fail the county exam in three days, you will have to lick Han Yuanzheng's shoes."

"I just said the word 'hard'. You must be overthinking it, Prince."

"I……"

Shen Liangcai took a deep breath to recover. He changed his words, "As long as you have real talent and knowledge, they can't do anything to you? Because there are two witnesses to this bet!"

"The female commander and the Prime Minister!"

Shen Liangcai said seriously: "With these two people present, we must ensure the fairness of the bet, which means ensuring the fairness of the county examination..."

"The prince's idea coincides with mine."

Song Chi said, "The Han family wanted to use the magistrate to block my county exam. I immediately requested that the Prime Minister review the exam papers... He is the Prime Minister of the current dynasty, and I don't believe he would be biased against his will in public."

This is an open conspiracy!

He wanted to pass the county examination with his real talent and knowledge, so that Song Shiwen could see whether his abandoned son was a waste.

Song Chi also held his breath.

"But... there's still one problem."

Shen Liangcai said in a deep voice: "The county magistrate is the chief examiner of the county exam, which means that he has the final say during the exam and even after the exam. If he wants to deal with you, he has many ways to do it, such as accusing you of cheating, or directly framing you, or even defacing your exam paper and destroying it..."

“There are so many ways.”

It can be seen that Shen Liangcai is really concerned and has thought of almost every possible situation that may be encountered.

Song Chi had also thought about this. People's hearts were evil, and he believed that this group of people could really do such things.

"If... the examiner wasn't Magistrate Bai, there would be no need to favor you. As long as he can ensure fairness, I'll accept it even if I don't pass."

Shen Liangcai sighed deeply. He didn't have much hope for the county exam in Songchi.

"Of course, the premise for them to do this is that you really have real talent and knowledge... As long as you can really produce good articles, there is still a chance."

Shen Liangcai encouraged Song Chi again.

"He's really interesting to me."

Song Chi has already determined that the two of them are in a master-servant relationship. How could a master care so much about his servant? Apart from this, there is no other explanation.

"Where are you going to start?"

"cough."

Shen Liangcai's words interrupted Song Chi's thoughts. The most urgent thing was to prepare for the county exam first.

He shook off the random thoughts in his mind and said in a deep voice, "I need the county exam questions from the past three years, as well as the essays and annotations of the top three answers, and also... the essays and annotations written by the Prime Minister."

"The county exam questions from the past three years... I have them all, but what do you want the Prime Minister's essay for?"

Shen Liangcai saw Song Chi's serious expression and couldn't help but feel more confident.

This method is correct. You can learn something from looking at previous years' exam papers.

"I want to guess the question."

"Guess the question?"

"right!"

Shen Liangcai frowned and said, "How can you guess that? The county exam questions are selected from the Four Books. The one with the most words is Mencius, which has over 30,000 words. The one with the least words is The Great Learning, which has over 1,000 words. The total number is over 50,000 words. How can you guess it?"

He felt that Song Chi was starting to act out of line again, and he even had the idea of ​​guessing the questions, which was simply a fantasy.

"Trust me, the mountain man has a clever plan."

Song Chi said, "To be honest, what I'm best at is taking exams."

Shen Liangcai sneered, “You are best at taking exams, so why did you fail for three consecutive years?”

Song Chi was speechless. It was the original owner who was stupid, not him. The original owner was a loser, while he was a true genius who had a photographic memory since he was young.

He doesn't need a golden finger because he himself is the golden finger.

The imperial examination was to give a question and then use some words of saints to support the central idea and come up with some profound truths. In other words, the saint's views were expressed through the words of saints. It was a bit convoluted and was roughly equivalent to the Chinese Language Olympiad.

The so-called Four Books essay is to select a sentence from the Four Books for discussion. There are strict requirements on the format, number of words, and sentence structure, and free expression is strictly prohibited.

Looking at the entire imperial examination, the total number of words in the Four Books, Five Classics and various other books adds up to more than 600,000. How could anyone possibly memorize them all?

And it’s useless even if you memorize it, because the test is about interpretation.

The essence of the imperial examination is to make things difficult for people, because only when it is difficult enough can people be divided into different levels and the elites be selected.

Learning the Four Books and Five Classics is only for the purpose of imperial examinations, but cannot be used to govern the country. That’s the general idea.

Many people have criticized the eight-legged essay, but have never thought about what Zhu Yuanzhang's original intention was in inventing the eight-legged essay. In fact, his purpose was very clear, which was to prevent scholars from inheriting the title and to provide a channel for upward mobility for poor families.

This thing is too difficult. Even if you have money to hire a famous teacher to teach you, it will be useless if you don’t work hard. People who come from a poor family are not afraid of hardship, because no matter how hard it is, it is not as hard as growing crops.

Song Chi is a professional who knows all about these things and of course he likes them very much.

The format of the Four Books is clear and free expression is strictly prohibited.

OK!

What he dislikes most is free expression, and what he likes most is memorizing questions and applying formulas without having to use his brain, which is exactly the strength of the small town test-taker.

However, time was too tight, and he had to study hard in a targeted way, so Song Chi thought of guessing the questions.

He must pass the county exam and take first place in the county!