The Red Chamber: Starting from Saving Xue Baochai

Chapter 51 Shocked Everyone Present

Soon, it was noon and the sun rose in the east.

Yu Qian, the Grand Secretary of Wuying Palace, the Minister of the Cabinet, and the Minister of War, stood on the high platform and announced loudly: "In the seventeenth year of Yuanzhen, the new military examination begins in spring!"

The imperial examination that would change the future destiny of the Great Zhou Dynasty had finally begun.

Following Yu Qian's order, more than 2,000 martial arts candidates entered the examination hall of the Martial Arts Park in an orderly manner.

The first written test was arranged to be held directly in the open-air training ground because the weather was clear today. Small wooden tables and futons had been set up in advance on the ground.

Patrolling soldiers stood scattered around the parade ground, with hundreds of flags fluttering in the wind, making the scene look particularly solemn.

At this time, there were more than 2,000 wooden tables lined up in the venue, which was a spectacular sight.

The literary examination in the spring was somewhat different from that in the autumn. The previous examination required one to memorize a thousand-word outline of the Seven Military Classics.

The difficulty of the Spring Examination was increased. According to the on-the-spot requirements, candidates had to draw numbers, chapters, pages and paragraphs, and silently recite certain passages from the Seven Military Classics.

It is also necessary to indicate where these paragraphs come from in the seven military books, including The Art of War by Sun Tzu, The Art of War by Wu Zi, Six Strategies, and Three Strategies.

This is already quite difficult for most warriors, and the time limit is one hour.

However, after two quarters of an hour, Shen Yuan finished answering.

When he handed in his answer sheet, all the candidates were shocked. They looked at him as if he were a monster and handed it to the examiner.

Others would not be able to finish writing in an hour, but this young man only needed quarter of an hour.

After a brief moment of surprise, a list of famous winners began to emerge in everyone's mind. They wondered which one of them this young man was.
When they saw the young man in green clothes, they all thought of the same name, Shen Yuan.

The Hanmozhai tabloid had mentioned the young man's blood-stained shirt many times, and everyone was deeply impressed by it.

Yes, this young man in blue must be the pervert without a doubt, who else could it be?

After being stunned for a moment, the martial arts candidates forced themselves to put away the many thoughts in their minds and answered the questions again at their desks.

When the examiner saw Shen Yuan handing in his paper so early, he initially thought that the boy was planning to give up the written test, but when he carefully looked at the paper, his pupils shrank slightly and his face showed disbelief.

Outside the martial arts park, tens of thousands of onlookers were either whispering to each other or sitting on the ground in groups of three or five, waiting for some explosive news to come out from inside the venue.

"Come out! Someone's coming out!"

"It seems to be someone from Hanmozhai."

"There should be some important news!"

"Shh, everyone be quiet and listen carefully!" Someone made a gesture to silence his companions.

"."

Soon, the man from Hanmozhai climbed onto a high platform and handed the paper in his hand to a tall soldier. Then, the soldier opened his voice and said loudly, "Shen Yuan, the top scorer in the Jinling Wu exam, completed the exam in two quarters of an hour and got full marks. A warrior should be like this, and decide the fate of the world with his pen."

The last two comments were specially added by the people of Hanmoxuan. Gao Yue's order to them was to do their utmost to publicize this spring exam and make it a myth.
The soldier with the loud voice was also specially selected so that his voice could reach everyone's ears.

As soon as this voice came out, the whole audience was in an uproar.

The onlookers all looked surprised and exclaimed in amazement. Soon, they started to talk about it.

"hiss--"

"This Shen Jieyuan is really a pervert!"

"As expected, you are number one in the Who's Who list!"

"Even if someone else were to come here, he wouldn't be able to write as fast as him, right?"

"It's not surprising that Wen Juren is not as good as him. Brother, don't forget that Shen Yuan is the top poet in Jinling. Even Mr. Li Shouzhong, the former chief priest of the Imperial College, praised his poems as rare in a thousand years, surpassing all the talented people in Jiangnan!"

This statement again caused the people around to exclaim in amazement.

"Hey, isn't Feng Ziying tied with Shen Yuan for first place in the list of winners? He should also be well-versed in military books, right?" As soon as the man asked the question, he saw another person from Hanmoxuan walking out of the examination room.

Soon, news came that Feng Ziying completed the written test paper in three quarters of an hour and also scored full marks.

The next one was Jiang Fan, who took half an hour and got full marks.

From this we can see that the list of winners compiled by Hanmo Zhai is still very valuable and is relatively realistic in all aspects.

Although submitting the paper early will not add any extra points, it can still play a role in the evaluation of the top three in the palace examination.

With Shen Yuan's lead just now, the onlookers were no longer as surprised at Feng Ziying and Jiang Fan as before, but they still regarded these two as monsters.

Just when the news about Shen Yuan came out, three little maids in the crowd were extremely excited.

They are Baochai's maid Ying'er, Xiangyun's maid Cuilu, and Qiu'er's maid Hongyao.

After receiving the news, Ying'er returned to Rongguo Mansion immediately and told Baochai, Xiangyun and others the news.

Hongyao went back and told Jiang Qiuer.

Cuilu continued to guard outside the martial arts garden, not missing any news about Shen Yuan.

Ying'er and Hongyao were running back and forth, destined to be busy today, but fortunately a carriage was arranged for them.

Rongguo Mansion, Lixiangyuan.

Baochai, Daiyu, Xiangyun, Ying, Tanxi and other girls were all there, and they were extremely interested in today's Spring Examination.

After learning the news about Shen Yuan, Baochai was overjoyed. Her soft almond eyes sparkled, as if reflecting the figure of her lover.
Loli Xiangyun couldn't help but get excited. She clenched her little pink fist and said excitedly, "I know that Brother Shen is always better than others!"

Daiyu's delicate eyes flashed with a strange light under her frowning eyebrows, but she smiled and joked, "You keep calling me Brother Shen all day long. Yun girl has no shame."

"Okay, Sister Lin just knows how to tease me." Xiangyun said, tickling Daiyu.

Daiyu dodged and continued with a smile, "Sister Yun is so unreasonable. When you can't win the argument, you just act like a spoiled brat."

For some reason, Lin Daiyu especially likes to play with Xiangyun. Perhaps she thinks Xiangyun is straightforward by nature, doesn't think too much, and will talk to her more easily.

Tanchun's bright eyes twinkled, and she smiled, "That Mr. Shen is so outstanding, no wonder Sister Yun admires him so much. We want to admire him, but we can't."

"You can make fun of me as much as you want." Xiangyun rolled her grape-like eyes and said with a bright smile, "I haven't seen you tease Sister Bao. If you can find fault with her, I will obey you."

When Baochai heard this, her heart was moved. If Lin Daiyu and the others knew about her relationship with Shen Lang, who knows how they would tease her.

Martial Arts Garden, si time.

The written test has ended, and the technical and bravery assessment is underway.

The main test of skills and bravery is strength, including drawing a hard bow, wielding a sword, and lifting stones.

The weight of bows is 1.5, 1.8, or 2 stones; the weight of swords is 80, 100, or 120 pounds; the weight of stones is 200, 250, or 300 pounds.

Shen Yuan, Feng Ziying and Jiang Fan were all able to draw a two-stone-force bow, wield a 120-jin broadsword, lift a 300-jin stone, and win full marks for skill and bravery.

Then came the walking shooting. They shot thirty arrows from a hundred steps away from the target. Without any surprise, all three of them hit the target.

Afterwards, they increased the shooting distance until the maximum distance between the two crossbows was 120 steps, and they still hit the target all the time, with no clear winner.

There were no stronger bows available on the field, so the foot archery ended here, leaving the final suspense to the horseback archery in the afternoon.

The performance of the three men in the morning shocked all the martial arts candidates and examiners present, and amazed the onlookers.

Han Mo Zhai commented: "His strength is as great as that of a mountain and his courage is as great as that of the world. His arrows can pierce willow trees from a hundred paces away."

"."

(End of this chapter)