Chapter 1446: First Place in the Prefecture Examination

After seeing off Ning Caichen, Jiang Hao prepared to take old Zhuge back to Jinhua. He hired a carriage and the driver hurried on. As for the lychees, they never appeared before Zhuge Wolong's eyes.

The carriage creaked, and Jiang Hao and Zhuge Wolong chatted in the carriage.

"Waiting for your servant?"

"No, he will come back on his own, and I told him to settle Brother Ning before he can come back. I'm afraid it will be delayed for a few days."

"Where are we going?"

"Jinhua Mansion, I want to take the government exam this year. The exam will start in less than January."

Old Man Zhuge nodded, "It's March and a half now, and the April government examination is indeed about to start. How is your county examination result?"

"County case leader."

"Bought with money?"

Jiang Hao rolled his eyes, do we still need to spend money? We forced the county magistrate to give it.

"I got here based on my ability." Jiang Hao said.

Old Man Zhuge became interested, "Then I will test you to see how much talent you have and how far you can go in the imperial examination."

"please!"

Old Man Zhuge was a serious scholar, with a photographic memory, and an extensive knowledge of the past and present. He later served in the Hanlin Academy, read countless books, and served as an official for many years. He even served as an examiner for the provincial examination and was very familiar with the imperial examination. .

Old Man Zhuge first asked a few questions for the government examination. After all, according to the usual practice, Jiang Hao, the county's case leader, will always have the status of a scholar as long as there is no serious accident.

Jiang Hao answered one by one, and the old man twisted his beard and nodded.

"Yes, you are well-deserved as the head of the case. If nothing happens, your scores in the government and college examinations will not be too bad. Then I will test your provincial examination questions again."

Then Old Man Zhuge started to take the rural examination questions again, and Jiang Hao also answered the rural examination questions perfectly. The old man didn't stop, he took the exam more and more deeply, and finally he even answered the questions from the general examination and the palace examination.

Jiang Hao was not afraid, and he answered all questions fluently. Even some profound eight-legged essays could be solved in just a few breaths. They were to the point, rigorous and profound, and the contents contained many thought-provoking words, but they were not rude or arrogant.

After chatting for more than two hours, old man Zhuge stopped when he was tired, looked at Jiang Hao and said: "With your talent, as long as the examiner is not blind or accepts too much money from others, you will be fine even if you pass the Jinshi. "

After chatting about the imperial examination, the two of them talked about the current officialdom. Old man Zhuge lamented, "Although I have been away from officialdom for more than ten years, the emperors have changed, but from others, I also know some things about the current court. Today, the court, It's even worse than when I was in court. Some were sycophants, some were eating nothing, some were corrupt, some were careless about people's lives, some were arrogant and aggressive, dogs occupied the manger, and treacherous ministers were in charge. This court has become extremely corrupt."

Jiang Hao thought of the convicted Shangshu Fu Tianchou in the movie and said, "There may be loyal ministers in the court."

"Haha, loyal ministers, some of them have been killed." Zhuge Wolong said with a cold snort.

After saying this, Old Man Zhuge looked at Jiang Hao and said, "You are determined to take the imperial examination, and you may enter the officialdom in the future. I feel that you will not join the ranks of those corrupt officials, and based on your mentality, it is estimated that those people will not easily defeat you. , I really don’t know what it will be like when you enter the officialdom, I’m really looking forward to it.”

"Oh, why did you say that, sir?" Jiang Hao asked curiously.

Although Zhuge Wolong's eyes were cloudy, the light of wisdom flashed through his eyes. He smiled and said, "Because you give me the impression that you are both upright and cunning, with a smart mind and a fierceness in your bones."

Jiang Haoxin said, this old man is really good at judging people.

Although I am not deeply involved in the intrigues of officialdom, I have experienced many things, seen many big scenes, and have more ways to deal with things. I can often consider problems from a higher perspective. After all, small means cannot defeat big conspiracy. Of course, this requires that the person using conspiracy has wisdom, knowledge and strength that far exceeds that of the conspirator.

In the evening, the carriage entered Jinhua Fucheng and soon came to the yard where Jiang Hao rented. Hearing the sound, Zhiqiu Yiye ran out immediately and was a little surprised to see Jiang Hao bringing back an old man. Jiang Hao only introduced this to him. It was Mr. Zhuge, the teacher he hired to teach him the imperial examination.

As for Zhiqiu Yiye, Jiang Hao did not hide anything from Zhuge Wolong. He told him that he was a monk from Kunlun Mountain and knew some magic. Zhuge Wolong was very surprised. He looked at Jiang Hao and said, "I didn't expect you to be involved in many things."

"Don't you feel overwhelmed by the arts?" Jiang Hao said with a smile.

This sentence has almost become Jiang Hao's motto now.

Zhuge Wolong was arranged to stay in the guest room. During the meal, Zhuge Wolong saw Litchi and praised the girl for being so beautiful, so he didn't pay much attention to it. It was normal for a young man to be romantic and have one or two beautiful maids around him.

Two days later, Zhu Guang came back and told Jiang Hao that Ning Caichen had settled down. At the same time, he was very grateful to him. Jiang Hao felt that it was a big thing to let go. No matter what, his brother in this world no longer had to go through so many hardships.

After Zhuge Wolong settled down, he asked Jiang Hao for a pen, ink, paper and inkstone. From then on, he lived in seclusion and spent most of his time in his room writing books. Sometimes he didn't even take a step in the courtyard for a day, and sometimes he sat under a tree for a day or two. Drink tea and talk with Jiang Hao about the past and the present.

Through communication, Jiang Hao discovered that this old man was really knowledgeable and worthy of being called Dr. Tongtian.

Seeing that the prefectural examination was coming, Jiang Hao sent Zhu Guang to check the prefect in order to avoid the situation like the county examination. If the prefect, like Magistrate Wang, had already marked the price in advance according to the ranking, then he would have to pay back the price. Use some means.

However, Zhu Guang came back and reported that although the prefect was also greedy for money, he only sought profits from merchants. Many shops in Jinhua City were his property, and he had no intention of selling the imperial examination.

Jiang Hao had no objection to the way the prefect made money, which was much better than the direct way of making money.

In this case, the rest depended on his own ability.

During this period, Jiang Hao bought a lot of books from the bookstore. No matter what, it was better to read more than less. Wisdom was like the sea and knowledge was vast. The more you learned, the more wisdom you would have. In fact, this was also a kind of tempering for your soul and character.

It was said that scholars had a righteous spirit. If scholars did not practice qi, where would the righteous spirit come from? It was a kind of aura that was cultivated by increasing wisdom and tempering the soul with knowledge.

In a blink of an eye, the prefectural examination was here.

Jiang Hao got up early that day. It was still dark outside. Lizhi helped him dress and tidy up. When he walked out of the room, he found that everyone else had also gotten up, and everyone accompanied him to eat breakfast.

Old man Zhuge drank the porridge and said, "You don't have to be nervous. With your talent, a small prefectural examination is easy."

"I'm not nervous." Jiang Hao said with a smile.

"Hahahaha, that's right." Old man Zhuge said with a smile.

Zhiqiu Yiye curled his lips, "In my opinion, with Brother Jiang's cultivation, wouldn't it be better for him to concentrate on cultivation? One day he will become a land immortal, slay demons and monsters, and travel the world proudly. Wouldn't it be great?"

Old Zhuge glared at Zhiqiu Yiye unhappily, "What do you know as a Taoist priest? The imperial examination is the right way."

"So what if you pass the exam? You will enter the officialdom, and then be framed like you, and finally thrown into prison. By then, you will escape with the help of Taoism." Zhiqiu Yiye said.

"You~you are incorrigible!" Old Zhuge's beard trembled with anger.

These days, Old Zhuge and Zhiqiu Yiye have become familiar with each other. The two often chat and gradually become friends. However, both of them are bickering people. They don't know when they will quarrel because of a word, but they will make up after two days and chat together again. Jiang Hao has long been accustomed to it.

Zhu Guang drove a carriage to take Jiang Hao to the examination room. When they arrived at the examination room, thousands of candidates had already gathered. It was customary to line up to enter the examination room for inspection. This time, there was no yamen to take care of him, and Jiang Hao's food box and book box were turned into a mess.

Anyway, these were just for the inspection, so he didn't care.

During the physical examination, Jiang Hao was not asked to take off all his clothes. He just took off his shoes and hat, messed up his hair, and unbuttoned his clothes to check if there was anything hidden.

There were too many people in the prefectural examination, so he couldn't choose the place. He was assigned to wherever he was assigned. It all depended on luck. Jiang Hao's luck was always good. The examination room he was assigned was dry and ventilated, which was already the best room.

The college examination was different from the county examination. Strictly speaking, there were only two sessions. The first was the main examination, and the second was the supplementary examination. If you were admitted in the first session, you didn't need to take the second session and just wait for the final ranking.

After Jiang Hao sat down, the cloud card rang soon, and the yamen runners began to distribute the papers. Jiang Hao opened it and took a look. There were eight papers in total, including the Four Books and Five Classics, dictation and analysis, and the last key was an eight-part essay. Jiang Hao had read all the questions and was completely confident.

He was not in a hurry, and answered slowly. His handwriting was neat and orderly, elegant and moderate. This was an exam paper and also a piece of calligraphy. The last eight-part essay ended perfectly.

Looking up at this time, the sun was just at noon. Jiang Hao took out two dishes from the space, a plate of braised spring bamboo shoots and a pumpkin pot eight-treasure rice. These were the specialties of Jinhua Mansion Babaolou, and Jiang Hao ate them with relish.

He has always been a greedy guy. He can endure hardships and even starve. When he enjoys himself, he will never treat himself badly. Jiang Hao asked Zhu Guang to order these things at Babaolou. He would order two tables when he had nothing to do. They were all specialties, and then put them in the space for use. Now the dishes stored in his space can probably be placed on ten or eight tables.

When the two yamen runners turned to Jiang Hao, they were stunned to see the dishes Jiang Hao was eating. They had never seen a candidate eating such a meal in the examination room.

Jiang Hao wanted to tell them that they were surprised because they had never seen anything like it. There were people eating hot pot in the examination room. You had never seen it before.

At dusk, people began to hand in their papers one after another. Jiang Hao did not wait until the end. He checked his name and filled it in. He called the yamen runners to seal the papers. Jiang Hao packed up his things and walked out of the examination room leisurely.

As soon as Jiang Hao came out, a very beautiful woman in pink jumped out of a carriage. She had a pretty maid's hair and trotted to Jiang Hao. As she ran, you could see the ups and downs of the waves.

The candidates around and the servants who came to pick them up were all stunned when they saw this scene. Some people even couldn't help swallowing their saliva, thinking that what a beautiful maid, which young master's bed warmer is this? They were so envious.

"Young master, how did you do in the exam?" Lizhi ran to Jiang Hao and asked.

Jiang Hao smiled, "Of course there is no problem, let's go home."

"Sir, I'll take the lunch box."

Lizhi took the box from Jiang Hao's hand. The others looked at the scholar and asked such a woman to take things. They felt that this man was too hateful.

If you don't cherish it, give it to us. We will take good care of it and not let her do rough work. Just serve her well.

When they got home, old man Zhuge still asked how she answered. Jiang Hao smiled and said that he was confident. The old man nodded and stopped asking.

He had confidence in Jiang Hao. As long as there was no major mistake, there would be no problem.

Two days later, Jiang Hao went to see the list of results. His name was on the list of admissions, but this time there was no result.

The next day, the provincial examination continued. Jiang Hao did not go. After two days, the list was finally released. Two or three thousand people stood outside the Gongyuan, waiting for the red list to be opened. The first person's name was "Jiang Hao".

And these two words are in a larger font than the names behind them, so they are very clear. Lizhi, who was following him, saw Jiang Hao's name and shouted in surprise, "Sir, you are the first. You are the first in this case."

This girl kept jumping while holding Jiang Hao's arm, her full body tightly wrapped around her arm, her white skin was faintly visible, attracting countless people to look at her.

PS: I haven't asked for votes for a long time. Today I'm asking for votes, monthly votes, and recommendation votes.