By the time the 400 places were confirmed, it was already past noon on the 24th, and the next day was the day for filling in the list.

The examiners then piled up all 3,600 rejected papers at the door of the hall and asked the chief examiner to search for them.

Because time was tight and the list had to be filled in the next day, the examiners would usually just look through the list symbolically and pick out a few lucky candidates to make sure that there would be no missed candidates in the exam.

However, what Shen Shixing and others did not expect was that the examiner actually looked very carefully. He picked up each paper and read it carefully before moving on to the next one.

All the examiners could not help but praise him: "Mr. Li is responsible for every candidate, he is really a role model for our generation."

The two supervising officials cursed in their hearts, wondering which idiot from the big boss's family had a connection with the Deputy Assistant Minister, but was dismissed by the examiner.

The chief examiner had to go down and put on his reading glasses to search for the failed papers...

Of course, it is fine to speculate on something without any evidence. Who dares to bring it up? Do you really think that Gancao Guo Lao is not a Guo Lao, but a paper statue?

As a result, Mr. Li searched and searched until dark before he found two copies.

He handed the second copy to Yin Shidan and said, "Look, this article is so sophisticated!"

“There are not many articles that can receive such praise from Lord Xinghua.” Yin Shidan took it and took a look at the article from the Four Books with a smile. He couldn’t help but be surprised. Apart from anything else, there was nothing wrong with this article. It was simply a model of eight-part essay writing.

He could not help but feel a little unhappy. He glanced at the names of his fellow examiners and threw the red paper to Zhang Lu, the Left Secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and said, "How did you read the paper? You don't accept such an essay?"

Zhang Lu picked up the paper nervously and looked through it carefully. He had a memory of this paper and did not take it for two reasons.

First, although the first essay was outstanding, the other essays were sparsely done, which showed that the candidate put all his energy on the first essay of the Four Books, which was quite opportunistic; second, he only did three of the four questions in the Book of Rites...

Although the rules allow this, in Zhang Jijian's opinion, the candidates who have completed all seven essays should be ranked ahead of him.

But arguing at this time would obviously anger everyone - the examiners really only focus on the first question when marking the papers. They spend more time on the first question than the other six questions combined.

Only when the examiners do this will they make choices about the answers. So when he accused the examinees of taking shortcuts, his colleagues would inevitably think that he was making indirect accusations.

Therefore, Zhang Jijian silently lowered his head and admitted his mistake, saying: "I think I missed it."

"It's inevitable." Li Chunfang continued to search with his hands behind his back, showing no sign of stopping. "Otherwise, what's the point of searching for the lost scrolls?"

Naturally, no one urged him to close the door. Instead, everyone lit the lights obediently and continued to search with the assistant minister.

Only when everyone was starving and about to pass out from hunger did Li Chunfang stop searching and handed the third red scroll to Yin Shidan, saying, "I think this one has some merits as well."

Yin Shidan took the paper, put on Li Chunfang's glasses, and read it carefully under the light.

"The words are pure and clear, and the examples are worth recording." After giving the comments, Master Yin glanced at the examiner's name and smiled at Yu Youding, "Bingzhong, you are still not up to the mark."

Yu Youding quickly took it with both hands and took a look. He found the article was indeed good. He quickly said with a look of shame, "I almost ruined the future of a talented person. Thanks to my husband's sharp eyes, I didn't regret it."

Everyone came over and looked at the paper curiously. They said happy New Year greetings, but they actually wanted to remember the essay.

In the future, by comparing the "Examination Notes" printed by the Ministry of Rites, we can find out which young man had the connection with Li Chunfang.

Although it won't be enough to cause trouble, it can be used as a topic of conversation after dinner, and can be written into unofficial history notes when you have time in the future. Isn't it an exclusive experience?

Li Chunfang noticed everyone's reactions, smiled faintly in his heart and said, "Those boys are still a little naive."

What I'm actually looking for is the previous one, and this one is just thrown out to divert your attention.

~~

The young cabinet minister's original plan was to wipe out all the candidates from Zhao Hao's family.

But unexpectedly, Zhao Liben had already taken the Li family's path.

With Zhang Juzheng's enlightenment, Li Chunfang finally decided to select all the candidates from the Zhao family.

But Li Chunfang didn't know which paper belonged to the Zhao family, so he didn't know where to start even if he wanted to help.

But I can’t resist the young cabinet minister’s awesomeness.

He was so powerful that he bribed some people behind the curtain... probably the inspector... and copied down the first line of the art composed by the five Zhao family members, and then secretly gave it to Li Mao.

Because Jin Xuezeng became Xu Fan's disciple suddenly, Xu Fan didn't know that there was such a person under the School of Science, so he let him escape.

Now Li Chunfang had something to rely on, and in the past few days she had been paying close attention to the papers handed over by her.

Later, I saw four more of them one after another. All the articles were top-notch, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that they were the top-notch candidates.

Naturally, Li Chunfang didn't have to worry about these four people. He even planned to suppress their rankings in the next ranking.

Otherwise, if these guys were to all be on the top of the list, it would be hard to explain to the young cabinet minister.

However, until all eighteen examiners had finished recommending their papers, he still hadn't seen where the fifth paper was.

Li Chunfang originally wanted to let it go so that she could also say a few nice words to Xu Fan.

But he changed his mind and realized that he was trying to sell good science. How could he show his true favoritism if he didn't accept the worst among them as his disciples?

He is already a very powerful person, would he appreciate his kindness?

So the Deputy Prime Minister took the opportunity to search for the lost scrolls and continued looking for the useless fifth person.

What's more, he actually found one, and it was worthy of admission, so Mr. Li did him a favor.

But if the young cabinet minister knew that his scheming had helped make science a good story, I would not know whether I should scold Li Chunfang for looking honest but actually having evil intentions, or sigh that science was so prosperous that nothing could stop it.

I guess it’s probably the former.

After all, all the young ministers would think that luck is on me, and everyone else is just a nobody...

~~

Next, the 25th to the 27th are used for ranking.

On the 25th, the examiners moved to the court.

First, according to the previous order, starting with Shen Shixing, he presented the 30 red-lettered papers taken from his room and discussed the rankings with the two examiners.

You said you were going to discuss this together, but do you dare to talk back to these two senior bosses?

He could only listen silently, nodding his head continuously, and waited until the examiner had ranked the thirty, then he smiled and said, "Junior totally agrees!"

At 3 p.m., Lin Shizhang, Li Zihua, Yu Youding and others also stepped forward one after another to discuss the ranking of their rooms with the examiner.

After the papers of the eighteen rooms were ranked, the twenty-sixth began to fill in the A and B lists.

The first thing filled in in the morning was the B list. The second person who had a room at the time of Shen was ranked first in the B list, which was the nineteenth place in the overall list.

Then the second place in each room will be ranked in turn; followed by the third place, fourth place, and so on, up to the nineteenth place, and the final place is ranked in this way.

Otherwise, if we arrange them one by one, the examiner would be exhausted and still not be able to finish.

In the afternoon, it is time to fill in the 'A list'.

The A list is also called the main list, which is composed of the top candidates in each room selected by the examiners and is called the "top candidate".

These eighteen top papers are also the top eighteen in this year's examination.

Before filling in the list of top 10 candidates, the 18 winners were divided into five parts according to the five classics they selected. Then the winners of the classics of "Book of Songs", "Book of History", "Book of Rites", "Book of Changes" and "Spring and Autumn Annals" were selected.

These five top scorers are the top five in the Wuchen Imperial Examination.

Then, starting from the sixth place, the ranking of these twelve top candidates will be decided by the two examiners.

Finally, everyone discussed the final ranking of the five champions, but in fact, apart from the first place, no one was competing too much for the other four places.

After all, the ranking of the provincial examination is not very useful, and the final result depends on the palace examination.

When all the rankings were determined, the A and B lists were also filled with the Thousand Character Classic numbers.

On the 27th, the two officials in charge of the examination brought the ink rolls and opened them with the chief examiner. The supervising official then compared the red rolls with the black rolls one by one and filled in the candidates' names in the corresponding positions on the A and B lists.

After filling out and checking that there are no errors, the list will be copied three times, one copy will be sent to the Ministry of Public Security to report to the emperor, one will be sent to the Ministry of Rites to make the Xingbang, and one copy together with the draft list and the red and black volume will be sent to the Censorate for examination and verification.

At noon on the 29th, the Ministry of Rites will announce the results!

ps. The fourth update, uh, 9100 votes plus more updates, and more updates are still coming, please give me monthly votes and recommendation votes~~~~