Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 687 Room No.

However, for some unknown reason, the previous prefects treated them like guests of honor after suppressing the bandits and never asked them to help with other things.

However, Hua Lei thought that since there were people available for free, it would be a waste not to use them, so several state cities approached them about digging ponds to store rainwater.

Bao Qianhu, the leader of the Anbang Army, happily went to Hualei's invitation to drink tea at Yunxiangju, the best restaurant in the city. This was a common occurrence for him. Moreover, this was also one of the means used by each new prefect to win him over.

However, just as the tea was served, Hua Lei proposed to him that the Anbang soldiers under his command were wasted their talents by sending them to the state capital below to do hard labor and dig ponds. The leader of the garrison, Captain Bao, was very unhappy about this.

So at the beginning, he directly refused. Hua Lei was not angry at Bao Qianhu's refusal, but slowly took out the official seal and placed it on the table.

Bao Qianhu turned his head away, pretending not to see it, and picked up the teacup. Hua Lei was not in a hurry, and drank tea while talking.

However, what she said was not about the suffering of the people after the drought, nor was it about how the government office was short of staff and needed the help of the Anbang soldiers.

It did not even mention that the Anbang soldiers were directly under the jurisdiction of the prefect, and that food and lodging were provided by Xichang Prefecture. Instead, it talked about some insignificant things in Shangjing City.

Half an hour later, Captain Bao agreed to dig the pond. Yes, many of the things Hua Lei said seemed like idle chats between friends, all of which were insignificant, but the occasional few words in between made him a little wary.

After the manpower was arranged, Hua Lei got up and left first. She didn't care whether Bao Qianhu was willing or not. How could there be people who only eat and don't work? Xichang Prefecture was so poor that it couldn't afford to support so many people who ate for free.

These Anbang soldiers were strong and just right for helping dig ponds. When Hualei was reclaiming the land for her own Huaguo Mountain, she had dug a pond on the top of the mountain to store water.

The first pond dug was in Changhui Prefecture. It was not on the top of a mountain, but on a few small slopes with slightly higher terrain. Therefore, the difficulty was lower than that on the top of a mountain.

Hualei flipped through her notes, and the pond began to be dug without any technical difficulty. After this one was dug, there would be more ponds to be dug. The amount of work to be done was quite large, enough to keep these Anbang soldiers busy for more than half a year.

Hua Lei sent Governor Liu to follow up on the matter, and sent a message to Governor Ding to cooperate with the garrison troops in the excavation. She and Rong Jin planned to take time out to patrol and inspect occasionally.

Hualei received a thank-you letter from Magistrate Ding just after the pond was dug. Whenever Magistrate Ding went to the prefecture for a meeting, he would always mention the annual drought in his prefecture, hoping that the prefect could help solve it.

Unfortunately, he wrote for several years, and the prefect changed several times. Every time he met with the governor, he got a promise, but when he returned to the prefecture, there was no response. He was already disappointed.

This time, when I mentioned the drought in my performance report, it was just a casual remark. Unexpectedly, just two months later, Hualei came up with a solution.

And they even sent people to help dig the pond. Sun Zhizhou was overjoyed again, and he also felt guilty for his initial doubts about Hualei.

Wan Tongpan was even more surprised that Hualei could ask the Anbang soldiers to help dig the pond. A few years ago, he was still a county magistrate under Changhui Prefecture, and the drought he encountered every year made him miserable.

He also reported it to the then prefect, who also reported it to the prefect. It is said that several prefects also asked these Anbang soldiers for help. However, for some reason, they returned empty-handed every time.

Last year, when Prefect Fei went to ask the garrison troops for help, he was already a judge, so he knew that Prefect Fei had brought several carriages of gifts. However, he returned empty-handed.

Unexpectedly, Hua Lei and Rong Jin went there empty-handed, but within just ten days, the Anbang soldiers stationed in Changlanzhou had already rushed to Changxingzhou to dig a pond.

While Wan Tongpan was puzzled, he had some vague understanding of Hua Lei's methods and abilities.

While Hua Lei was busy in Xichang, Xiao Yuan in Beijing was also experiencing the most important stage of his life.

In the early spring of this year, the imperial examination, which was held every three years under the auspices of the Ministry of Rites, was held in the capital. In the Great Sheng Dynasty, the imperial examination was usually held in early March.

Although Hualei had not experienced the imperial examinations of the Great Sheng Dynasty, she had experienced the college entrance examinations in her previous life. She once thought that the college entrance examinations in her previous life were already very difficult.

However, compared with the imperial examinations here, Hualei felt that, regardless of the difficulty of each exam, the imperial examinations here might be more difficult and more challenging to one's physical fitness.

Because the examination environment here is not a little worse than in the previous life. Because of the matter of the imperial examination room printing books, Hualei is also familiar with the staff of the Ministry of Rites.

I once had the honor of taking Xiaoyuan and Rongjue to experience the scene of the imperial examination in the Great Sheng Dynasty when the Ministry of Rites was repairing and renovating the Imperial Examination Hall a few days before the examination.

Generally speaking, the Ministry of Rites would arrange the examination hall for the three-yearly joint examination in a specific place called "Gongyuan". The Gongyuan in Shangjing City was not far from the Ministry of Rites and covered an area of ​​nearly 30 acres.

Inside are small compartments. According to the length conversion from the previous life, each small compartment is generally a space of 1.2 meters by 1 meter, which is called a "room" or "house."

These rooms are where candidates take exams and where they eat and sleep. Candidates taking the imperial examinations have to sit for three tests in this small space: the Four Books and Five Classics, Policy Questions, and Poetry and Fu. Each test lasts three days, for nine consecutive days and six nights.

Eating, drinking, defecating, urinating and sleeping are all done here, and you cannot leave here even for a moment. Therefore, when entering the examination room, many candidates who are well-off and a little more particular usually bring a toilet bucket with them in addition to their writing brushes, inkstones, clothes, quilts and food.

During the exam, if you need to relieve yourself, you can use a toilet. If you don't bring a toilet, you may have to "sizzle" in the corner of your own cell. Of course, this is urination, which may be easy to solve.

If you need to go to the toilet during the exam, you must hand in your test paper first.

Then someone will come and lead you to the designated toilet place in the Imperial Examination Hall to solve your urgent needs. However, when you come back, you will find that there is an extra "ash poop", also known as a "shit stamp", on your test paper.

When the examiner saw the test paper with the "shit stamp" on it, he threw it away. On the one hand, he thought it was unlucky. On the other hand, he thought the candidate was suspected of cheating.

687---Next

Therefore, candidates generally do not apply for toileting unless there is an emergency. Those who are well-off and particular about toileting will bring a toilet bucket with them.

If a candidate has no money and does not want to waste three years of hard work, he or she will usually bring a thick cloth bag to solve the problem of defecation.

Although it is embarrassing, there are tens of thousands of candidates and more than half of them do this, if not all of them. So, it doesn't matter whether it is embarrassing or not.

However, with so many people using cloth bags to relieve their bowel movements, it is conceivable that the smell in the examination room would be overwhelming. If you get an upset stomach during the exam, it would be even worse, and you might even pay with your life.

During the exam, candidates also need to bring their own food. In order not to delay the exam, many candidates bring dry food. Of course, in order to prevent candidates from putting cheat sheets in these dry food.

At the entrance of the Imperial Examination Hall, all the things brought by the candidates would be checked one by one, including the steamed bread and pancakes brought by the candidates. They would also be broken up and kneaded one by one. Only after it was found that there were no cheat sheets could the candidates bring these powdered dry food in.

For the next nine days, the examinees would rely on these dry rations to solve their food problems. Of course, there were basically no dishes to go with these dry rations.

So, when Hua Lei came back from the Imperial Examination Hall, she immediately took out the pickled vegetables from Yuanying Manor, chopped them up, mixed them with minced meat, fried them with a lot of oil, put them in a large pottery jar, and sold them to the examinees. To match it, there was an empty jar.

After the candidates buy these pickled vegetables, when they are inspected at the door, they pour the vegetables in the ceramic jars into empty jars and let the staff at the door check them. After they find no problems, they can take them in.

Although the inspection process was troublesome, it was very convenient to eat, so it was very popular among candidates. Later, Hualei asked Zhuangzi to sell these pickled vegetables made with special devices during every imperial examination.

The most important thing is that Hualei's prices for these pickled vegetables are quite low, so that many candidates can afford them. Moreover, even if the candidates do not have the money to buy these pickled vegetables for the time being, Hualei will buy them on credit for them.

As long as these candidates show their household registration and examination certificates, Yuanying Manor will provide them with a meal during the examination period, which includes 101 white flour buns and a portion of pickled side dishes stir-fried in a large amount of oil.

Why is it one hundred and one steamed buns? Apart from considering the amount of food the candidates eat during the nine-day exam period, it is also a good start, meaning one in a hundred will make further progress.

Therefore, many candidates from other places who were short of money came to buy the meals on credit. Moreover, they only made some simple agreements on the date of return.

Generally, they are asked to return the books within two months after the exam results are released. There are no other mandatory restrictions.

Even if some of them didn't return it, Hualei didn't care. Of course, most people would return it voluntarily, especially the high school students, who would return ten or a hundred times more.

Therefore, the catering business during this exam period has a very good sales volume. However, whether or not one can make money depends entirely on the self-consciousness of the candidates and Hualei's own luck.

As long as one of the students who bought on credit passed the exam, Hualei could make a lot of money. If none of the students who bought on credit passed the exam, and very few of them returned the money voluntarily, Hualei would lose more.

However, for Hua Lei, even if she loses money, she has been doing this. She always remembers her grandfather who went through so much hardship to go to the capital to take the imperial examination.

She was willing to lend a helping hand to those candidates who were in similar predicaments as her grandfather. Just like when Lord Pei helped her grandfather just because his name was the same as her grandfather's, the two of them became inseparable.

It also gave her and her brother a direction to run towards and a goal to work towards when they were at their wits' end. She always remembered her grandfather's teachings: do not refrain from doing good deeds even if they are small, and do not do bad deeds even if they are small.

She also always remembered the time when Lord Pei extended a helping hand, which changed her grandfather's life, her father's life, and her and Xiaoyuan's life. She would remember the words and deeds of the two old men and try to be good.

She hopes that a little help from her can change the fate of some people and give them a brighter future.

The Imperial Examination Hall generally does not provide meals, but it does provide well water. However, whether you can drink boiled water is not certain. It depends on your money and your connections. Many candidates from poor families may drink water directly from the well.

Of course, this well was also used for the imperial examination three years ago. During the three years when it was empty, many dead branches and rotten leaves may have fallen into the well and slowly rotted in the well, and countless insect eggs and bacteria may have bred in the well water.

Therefore, drinking these unboiled well water is also a great test for the candidates' health. If they are not careful, they are likely to have diarrhea. What can they do? They can only eat and drink less.

Therefore, there are two possibilities for candidates taking the imperial examinations. The first is that they continue to take the examination while being hungry, dizzy, and weak in their hands and feet.

Another one is diarrhea, which makes your room stink, and then you have to take the exam in this disgusting environment with your hands covering your nose and mouth.

Don’t think that this is the test, there are more severe tests to come. Because the room is only 1.2 meters long and 1 meter wide, but during the nine days and six nights of the exam, candidates cannot leave the room.

They also had to sleep here at night, so sleeping became a problem for many people. The wooden board used for exams during the day was removed before going to bed and put together with the wooden board for sitting, forming a 1.2 meter by 1 meter bed board.

However, the candidates who take the exam are generally adult men. Not to mention those who are 1.8 meters tall, even those who are 1.5 meters tall cannot lie flat and sleep here.

Many times, I could only curl up, lean against the wall, take a nap, and cope with the night. I had to cope with it for six nights in a row before I could get through it.

This is when the weather is good. If the weather is bad, with strong winds and heavy rain, the conditions will be even more difficult because the cells are open and have no doors.

If it rains heavily during the day and candidates are taking the exam in the dormitory, the rain may drift in and wet the test paper on your desk. The test paper is all written with a brush, and once wet by the rain, it will become black. The test paper will be invalid, and three years of hard work will be wasted.