Chapter 369: Binary Linear Equation

As the time for the imperial examination approached, Wang Hou also presented reports to Jiang Jinshi on the movements of scholars in various places and clues about suspicious persons detected.

"My Lord! As you expected, the people coming are mixed. In addition to the poor scholars who came to defect sincerely, at least seven groups of suspicious persons have been discovered, carrying traces of Western Liang, the Imperial Court, and individual Jiangnan scholar-gentry backgrounds respectively.

Among them, two groups of people hid weapons and special drugs in their belongings, suspected of having ulterior motives, and I have arranged for people to focus on monitoring them."

In other places, Wang Hou's intelligence might not be as good as others, but once they crossed the line of Shuoning, any unusual movement in the territory where the Ming Army was located could not be hidden.

Jiang Jinshi flipped through the roster, a sneer appearing at the corner of his mouth: "These people, if they can't stop it, they come to disgust me!"

Wang Hou cupped his hands and asked: "Should I send someone to kill them first? To stabilize the order of the imperial examination!"

Jiang Jinshi shook his head: "They came just right, I'm just afraid they won't come. No need to startle the snake for now, let those 'fish' enter the venue smoothly. Inside and outside the examination hall, set up a net for me!"

I want to let the people of the world see that under the rules of our Beijiang, any conspiracy and trickery are in vain!"

It didn't matter before sitting at the table, but now that they were at the table, they naturally had to fight for money and grain, land, talent, and the hearts of the people.

He paused and said to Xiao Chunqiu and Feng Chunsheng: "How is the test question prepared?"

Xiao Chunqiu presented a stack of sealed files: "The classics questions are mainly focused on practical application! The policy questions are closely related to the current governance of Beijiang, the relationship with Western Liang and the Imperial Court, and the difficulties of people's livelihood development!

The arithmetic questions added a large number of questions related to actual farmland, grain and pay, and engineering calculations, as well as this binary linear equation you mentioned, Lord.

The practical questions selected real documents, files, and craftsman drawings for analysis and modification.

Currently, they are all ready, divided into three sets, and I will personally draw them before the exam and seal them and send them to each examination hall."

"Good!"

Jiang Jinshi nodded, "Remember, pasting names, copying, dividing rooms, and supervising the exam, every link must have at least two people supervising, recorded in the files, and responsible to the person.

What I want is absolute fairness, an impeccable procedure! Let everyone have nothing to say!"

Winter passed again, and most of the candidates had gathered in Beijiang, just waiting for this different imperial examination to begin.

And Jiang Jinshi also completely mastered who those spies were in the crowd. Once the exam started, Wang Hou's people would act directly.

On the day of the imperial examination, outside the tribute halls temporarily rebuilt in the three cities, there was a sea of people.

Scholars from all over the world, with different clothes and different accents, lined up in long queues.

Under the inspection of serious military officials and civil officials, they checked their identities one by one, received their number plates, searched their clothes, and then entered the examination hall, which was strictly guarded by high walls and soldiers.

Inside the examination hall, rows of numbered rooms were neat and solemn, and there were soldiers with swords patrolling every row.

Before the test papers were issued, the chief examiner displayed the sealed question box in public, and several scholar representatives checked that the seal was intact, and then opened it in public to distribute the test questions.

When the scholars unfolded the test papers and saw those unprecedented test questions that were closely combined with reality, some frowned and thought hard, some wrote furiously, and some had sweat on their foreheads.

Obviously, they were stumped by questions such as farmland clearing, river channel earthwork, and document error correction in "Practical Affairs" and "Arithmetic".

As for that equation, they had never heard of it. What is an unknown number?

It's already called an unknown number, how do I know what it is?

And those special candidates with ulterior motives, while answering questions, nervously observed the strict deployment inside and outside the examination hall.

They secretly called out in their hearts, knowing that the original plan to create chaos was almost impossible to achieve under such strict precautions.

The exam lasted for three consecutive days, and the Ming Army provided food and drink.

During this period, the order inside and outside the examination hall was orderly, with only the rustling sound of pen tips sliding across the paper and the slight footsteps of patrolling soldiers.

Several scholars fainted due to nervousness or physical weakness and were quickly carried out for treatment by medical officials who were prepared.

There were also two people who were caught on the spot by sharp-eyed invigilating soldiers because they tried to peek at the test papers of the neighbors, stripped of their numbered clothes, and dragged out of the examination hall.

People who want to take advantage of loopholes are everywhere, but the strict examination hall rules made these people unable to start.

Three days later, the exam ended.

The test papers were quickly taken away, names were pasted and numbered, and sent to the government office newly built by Feng Chunsheng.

Hundreds of carefully selected civil officials with neat handwriting worked day and night in small rooms isolated from each other to copy the test papers, ensuring that the handwriting was unified and the original papers could not be identified.

The copied test papers were sent to the grading room. The grading officials were assigned by drawing lots temporarily, and they were not allowed to communicate with each other. They graded and scored according to a unified scoring standard without knowing the name and background of the candidates.

The whole process was open, strict, and interlocked.

Countless eyes watched all this, and the initial contempt and suspicion were gradually replaced by shock and solemnity.

For the first time, they witnessed a procedure completely different from the imperial examination of any previous dynasty.

Here, it seems that you can really only speak by the ability of your articles.

This also made those students with real talent and learning overjoyed. They did not participate in any family poetry gatherings before coming to Beijiang, and there were no academic exchanges.

This also means that Beijiang is really different from the scholar-gentry, and will not use the scholar-gentry's set to select talents.

Even if this would lead to a longer grading time, everyone was willing to wait.

Half a month later, the gold list was posted in the three cities at the same time.

Countless people rushed to the list to find their names. For a time, cheers, sighs, and crying were mixed together.

Those who were on the list were overjoyed regardless of their background.

And what moved many people even more was that next to the list, several policy, arithmetic, and practical answers that were rated as "excellent" in this exam were also posted, for everyone to observe and comment.

Their unique insights, pragmatic countermeasures, and precise calculations made many old scholars on the sidelines nod secretly.

At the same time, another notice was posted, listing the processing results of several people who tried to bribe, impersonate, and violate the rules of the examination hall, all of whom were severely punished according to the law, and the rewards for the whistleblowers were announced.

Among them, it included the aliases and outcomes of two special candidates who were found to be carrying prohibited items and had ulterior motives.

The news grew wings and flew to the world again.

This time, the shock it brought was far more intense than the news of the Grand Ceremony of Selecting Talents itself.

Beijiang not only really held an unprecedented, relatively fair examination but also showed the whole world its determination and ability to implement new policies and select talents!

Those spies who mixed in not only failed to cause damage but became a negative foil!

The flames in the hearts of countless poor scholars were completely ignited, and many students who questioned Beijiang did not go, and were now regretting it.

And the forces that were still watching in various places had to re-evaluate the potential and threat of Beijiang. ===== CHAPTER 370 =====