Li Banghua was not surprised by the news that the candidates were boycotting the exam.
The students had two ways to resist the imperial court: one was to boycott the exams, and the other was to write small posters to incite the masses.
Either method is intended to maximize the impact of the incident, preferably to the emperor.
In order to quell the incident as quickly as possible, the emperor would generally severely punish the person involved.
Li Banghua understands this well.
He stepped forward and patted Huang Zongxi on the shoulder: "Can you tell me who organized the boycott?"
Huang Zongxi hesitated: "Are you planning to send troops to arrest people?"
Li Banghua laughed and said, "Don't worry, I promise I won't do anything despicable like that."
After getting Li Banghua's guarantee, Huang Zongxi told Li Banghua the name.
"Thank you very much," Li Banghua bowed to Huang Zongxi, "Is there anything else? If not, please help me clear my bad name."
Huang Zongxi bowed and said, "I need some information to clear your name. I wonder if you can provide it?"
"Write it down, and I'll have someone send it to you."
"Thank you, Sir. I will take my leave now."
The three men bowed to Li Banghua and turned to leave.
As soon as they walked out of the room, the three of them came back.
They reached out and picked up the sticks on the table, then fled the scene at full speed.
As the house returned to silence, Li Banghua began to think of countermeasures.
After noon, Li Banghua began to write at his desk.
He wrote letter after letter, signed and stamped them, and had them delivered one by one.
It is inevitable that candidates will boycott the exam.
There were also people in the Nanjing court who wanted to take advantage of the situation.
In that case, it would be better to let the storm come more violently.
Behind him, he has the giant tree of the Ming Emperor to protect him from wind and rain.
On the other hand, the Nanjing court, no matter how big their trees are, cannot defeat His Majesty.
However, Li Banghua was not complacent.
No matter how strong he is, he is still a powerful dragon, and he needs to be extremely careful and cautious when fighting against these local snakes.
August 16th is the day of the Autumn Examination. All candidates from Southern Zhili gather in Nanjing to take part in the provincial examination held every three years.
Before dawn, the city of Nanjing began to move.
The soldiers responsible for maintaining order in the examination room got up early to eat, and then came outside the examination room to maintain order.
Street vendors also got up early to sell various exam supplies.
In addition to stationery such as pens, ink, paper and inkstones, the best-selling and fastest-selling items are dry food to be eaten during exams.
The reason is that the exam takes too long and the food will go bad.
There were three sessions of the Autumn Examination in the Ming Dynasty, each lasting three days and nights, with two changes of venue in between.
In actual terms, the total duration of the exam is nine days and seven nights.
The first test was eight-legged essay, with questions based on the Four Books and Five Classics.
The second test is to write various types of official documents based on official documents and cases.
The third test question asked candidates to come up with countermeasures and solutions based on the national economy and people's livelihood issues mentioned in the topic.
In order to ensure the fairness and smoothness of the examination, the rooms will be locked after the examination begins and remain locked until the end of the examination.
During these nine days and seven nights, the poorer candidates basically only ate three kinds of food: fried noodles, perforated sesame cakes, and pickles.
These three kinds of food are military rations, and their long shelf life has been recognized by the army.
The wealthy candidates did not have many types of food to eat, and their staple food was fried noodles and perforated sesame cakes plus pastries.
Since today is the day of the Autumn Examination, in order to prevent any accidents, Shi Kefa divided the soldiers of the Nanjing Beijing Camp into two.
Some of them guarded the city walls and gates, while the rest went into the city to assist the Nanjing Five Cities Army and the Yingtian Prefecture Yamen officers in patrolling the city and maintaining order.
Outside the examination room, two chief examiners and four co-examiners supervised the soldiers' body searches at the entrance of the examination room.
Before the autumn examination in the Ming Dynasty, each provincial government and the two capitals would arrange two chief examiners and four co-examiners.
The chief examiner is responsible for setting questions, reviewing papers, ranking, drawing up the admission list and reporting it to the Ministry of Rites.
The co-examiner is responsible for assisting in setting questions and marking papers.
From the beginning of the Ming Dynasty to the tenth year of Wanli, the qualifications of the chief examiners and co-examiners changed frequently.
It was not until the 11th year of the Wanli reign that the Ministry of Rites stipulated that the four provinces with large numbers of scholars, namely Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Huguang and Fujian, would be chief examiners by the Hanlin editors and reviewers.
Other provinces sent the head of the Ministry of Rites and the six officials to serve as chief examiners.
The co-examiners were selected locally, and were required to be Jinshi graduates and serve in the imperial court.
The chief examiners of the Southern Zhili Autumn Examination were Li Zhichun, the head of the Ministry of Rites in Beijing, and Wu Linwei, the Imperial Censor of the Ministry of Personnel.
The other four examiners were local officials from Nanjing.
Six people waited outside the examination room for quarter of an hour, but no one showed up.
As the exam time was getting closer, Li Zhichun began to feel nervous.
He quickly walked up to Huang Jin, the Nanjing Minister of Rites, who was watching from the sidelines, and asked in a low voice, "Sir Huang, why don't you see the examinees entering the hall?"
Huang Jin sighed and replied in a low voice: "There are some things I can't tell you, you will know in a moment."
"Could it be...that the candidates will boycott the exam?" Li Zhichun became increasingly panicked.
This was his first time as the chief examiner. If a boycott occurred, it would be a fatal blow to his future.
"What you fear will come true. Look, they are coming!" Huang Jin looked towards the corner of the street and sighed again.
He lamented that these students were being taken advantage of.
Regardless of the result, the careers of these candidates will be affected.
Li Zhichun followed Huang Jin's gaze and saw a very large team walking towards the corner of the street.
They wore blue lanshan (scholar's uniform) and black Confucian scarves on their heads, and walked towards the examination room in a mighty procession.
A scholar holding a sandalwood tablet walked in front, and the other students followed behind him holding incense sticks.
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