Dominate the ancient academy

Chapter 147: The First Friendly Exchange between Civil and Military Affairs

Although most of the students drank the ginger soup prepared by the academy, ginger soup is only used to prevent colds and drive away the cold, and its effect is not a panacea.

Despite the college's loving ginger soup, many students from the College of Arts and Sciences still caught colds.

When the students from the military class learned of this situation, some were speechless, feeling that the students from the liberal arts class were indeed quite weak. Others went to offer their condolences, after all, they were friends who had played snowball fights with them, and they always felt as if they were somewhat responsible for their illness.

If you were outside, it would be easy to buy some gifts and supplements when seeing a patient, but in this isolated place like the academy, there is really no place to buy anything.

Fortunately, the students who caught a cold were not only those playing snowball fights, so the academy simply kept preparing ginger soup. Today, almost every student got a bowl of hot and spicy ginger soup.

The students from the martial arts class simply brought ginger soup and visited the students from the College of Arts and Sciences who had participated in the snowball fight or knew each other.

Looking at the full bowl of ginger soup, the students from the College of Arts said:......

Even if you don't come, even if you come empty-handed, they won't have any objections. So is it necessary to send you a bowl of bitter and spicy ginger soup?

Those who know you think you are visiting a patient, while those who don’t think you are here to cause trouble!

Seeing their expressions, the visitor felt a little embarrassed: "Hey, isn't it that our academy really can't buy anything? You can just make do with what you have for now, and I'll replenish it during the break."

"We care about those vulgar things?"

The student who received the ginger soup curled his lips and retorted. Although he was suspicious of the ginger soup, when he saw that they came to show concern, he took the ginger soup, tilted his head back, and drank it.

This was probably the first friendly exchange between students from liberal arts and military sciences, although it started with ginger soup.

Even the academy thought that the relationship between the two groups might become more tense because the students from the martial arts class caught a cold. Unexpectedly, the relationship became much more harmonious, which was also unexpected for the academy.

This is also something that the academy likes to see. After all, they are all students. Every time you see the two groups of people meet, they are like cross-eyed chickens. When it comes to big things, you don’t let me and I don’t let you, as if they can get a big advantage if they win the argument, and they never get tired of it.

Now that the relationship between the two factions has gradually eased, their academy will have to worry less in the future. With this idea in mind, the academy not only takes good care of the sick students, but also has a much more gentle expression during normal classes.

The students were shocked by this change in the teachers in the academy. The current teaching method emphasizes that strict teachers produce excellent students and that teachers should be respected. The status of teachers is still very high. Most of them are serious in front of students. During class, each one is more serious than the other, to the extent that they might scare children to tears if they go out.

It suddenly became gentle, but to be honest, I'm not used to it, really not used to it.

Thinking about how I had caused others/myself to catch a cold because of my playfulness and had brought trouble to the academy, I was worried that the teacher would suddenly change his attitude and want to settle the score later. I was worried that I would become the unlucky chicken who was killed to scare the monkeys, so I became more humble and polite in front of the teacher.

As both parties misunderstood each other, the atmosphere in the academy became more harmonious.

However, in this harmonious atmosphere, an undercurrent is quietly surging.

As the snowflakes fall, the February Spring Examination is getting closer. The students in the academy who are taking part in the Spring Examination have an air of tension and seriousness that makes people afraid to get close to them.

The Spring Examination was the highest and fastest way to gain fame, wealth and power. Except for the royal family and nobles, most of the officials in the court had climbed the mountain of imperial examinations.

Although there are no swords or knives in it, it is still extremely dangerous. Compared with the modern college entrance examination and imperial examination, where thousands of troops compete to pass the single-plank bridge, they can only consider themselves as little brothers.

Although the imperial examination system gave ordinary people the opportunity to change their destiny, due to the imperfection of the imperial examination system, the process was full of loopholes, which also gave powerful people the opportunity to exploit them.

Since the establishment of the imperial examination system, not only have there been cases of collusion between examinees and officials every year, but there has also been an endless stream of cheating by examinees.

Examinations and cheating are like day and night, neither can be missing. With examinations, cheating also comes.

No one cares about your hard work for ten years, but once you become famous, everyone knows you. In ancient times, success in the imperial examination was a real change of family status and honor for the ancestors.

In modern times, where "there are top talents in all 360 professions", the college entrance examination is the most watched profession, not to mention the ancient times where "all professions are inferior except for studying".

No candidate could refuse such a great temptation. Some studied hard and passed the imperial examination with real talent and knowledge, while others took a different approach, wanting to gain something for nothing. They racked their brains to find ways to cheat, and thus various bizarre and varied cheating methods were born.

Cheating has a long history in China. There are things like making friends, passing papers around, keeping things hidden, writing for others, imparting theories, burning candles, sending letters by carrier pigeons... There is nothing that the candidates cannot do, even if you can't think of it.

The examination methods, systems, subjects, etc. of modern candidates and ancient candidates may be different, but the mentality of cheating candidates should be roughly the same.

Depending on the era and technology, there are three main types of cheating in ancient times: asking for favors, taking the exam for someone else, and bringing in cheats.

The most common way to cheat is to ask for favors, that is, to bribe examiners through connections to seek admission. Specific methods include probing questions, bribery and tampering. Probing questions means to find out the questions before the exam. By bribing examiners, examiners leak the questions to candidates before the exam. Tampering is commonly known as "making secret codes". Candidates set special marks on the test paper, "or write a few empty words, or "yes", or "yes", so that examiners can identify them and cheat. The method of tampering goes a step further, directly bribing examiners and staff to tamper with the test paper, copying and tampering the test paper.

Of course, this method has certain requirements for the candidate's family background, and not every candidate can apply it. Although this method has certain risks, its success rate is not low.

Although candidates whose families have some property are not qualified to ask for favors or bribes, they can still find someone to take the exam for them. They spend some money to hire someone to take the exam for them, commonly known as "a popular candidate". The popular candidate will be admitted to the exam, while the candidate being replaced will not be admitted.

In ancient times, there was no such thing as photo or fingerprint recognition, so taking exams for others was not a problem at all, and the success rate was very high.

For those who have no power, no influence, and no connections, then there is no way to ask for favors. But if they really want to struggle, the easiest way is to cheat by "bringing in papers". It does not require money or influence, and is definitely the best choice for ordinary candidates to cheat.

Although the smuggling method is convenient and cost-free, it is also easy to be discovered. After all, the inspectors in front of the Imperial Examination Hall are not easy to deal with.

If a candidate is found to have smuggled cheats, he will be expelled from the examination room, his academic title will be revoked, and he will be banned from taking the imperial examinations for life. These are relatively light punishments. More serious punishments include caning and exile.

If a candidate cheats and is not discovered, he may gain fame or a position, although it is immoral, the benefits he gains are huge. If he is discovered, he can only wish him good luck.

But no matter what, the candidates were absolutely cautious about the imperial examination.