Diqin Designer

Chapter 186 Xianyang Examination, Fan Zeng's Reference

Maodun's death did not cause much disturbance in the Qin court.

At this time, Daqin was too confident!

The ministers and generals who had just conquered the six kingdoms and unified the world were full of confidence and felt that they could defeat any country in the world. If you, the Huns, are not convinced, then come over and fight us?
But the confidence of the ministers and generals was truly flawless, because no one could defeat them.

This is the confidence of a great and powerful country!

Li Nian felt that if this kind of self-confidence continued to develop, the Qin envoys would become the same as the Han envoys, a nightmare for small countries, relying on the strength of the country behind them to stir up trouble everywhere: Come and kill me if you dare. If you don’t, I will kill you. But if you really kill me, Qin bacteria will grow here.

The Hun delegation had no objection. What could they say in the face of the powerful Qin?
Anyway, the Chanyu is in his prime, so the worst that can happen is that he can have a few more sons.

On the contrary, it would have been better if the Qin people had not used the excuse that Crown Prince Maodun had trespassed into the forbidden palace to send troops to attack them.

During the days they stayed in Xianyang, they became more and more pessimistic and believed that there was no way the Huns could defeat Qin.

Qin gave them the feeling of a giant dragon, full of vitality and growing stronger, while they, the Huns, were like a wolf in its twilight years, with an aging body, rotting claws and fangs, and exuding a heavy air of desolation.

How could a rotten and old wolf be a match for a dragon that is already powerful and is still getting stronger?
According to the news sent back by Liu Ji, this also produced a wonderful phenomenon: these Huns began to praise the power and beauty of Daqin, and were full of envy and yearning for Daqin. Some Hun envoys even expressed how great it would be if they could be people of Daqin.

This news was put on the table of Ying Zheng, who decided to let Liu Ji have deeper contact with the Xiongnu delegation and develop these people into spies for the Qin Dynasty in the Xiongnu.

Maodun's death did cause some waves among the people, but the blame was put even more firmly on Li Nian. It was generally believed that it was Li Nian who killed Maodun. Even if he did not give the order personally, it was definitely Li Nian's doing.

But according to folk rumors, there is no belief that there was anything wrong with Li Nian killing Maodun. On the contrary, it was absolutely right. It was because of Princess Shunying that Prince Li Nian killed the Xiongnu prince in a rage. How romantic is that?
The version in which Li Nian killed the Hun prince out of anger for the princess spread the fastest and most widely among the people. However, the story became more and more outrageous as it spread, and a lot of extravagance was added to it. It is estimated that in a few hundred years, it will become a classic folk story and be put on the screen.

After learning about the version that appeared among the people, Li Nian could only sigh that no matter what era, people like gossip, even in the Qin Dynasty with backward productivity.

I hope that the folk version of the story will not be too outrageous or melodramatic, and that young and popular stars will not be allowed to play themselves in the future.

But Li Nian was not in the mood to care about his folk stories now, because the Xianyang Examination was about to be held, and he was checking the entire process of the Xianyang Examination to fill in the gaps.

The Xianyang Examination is essentially the Qin version of the imperial examination. As it is the first one, it will inevitably affect various examinations formally established later on the Qin Dynasty. We should do our best wherever we can.

Unlike the imperial examinations of later dynasties, the Xianyang examination did not test Confucian classics, but three subjects: policy questions, mathematics, and the study of things, and was completed within one day.

The questions for the policy examination were set by the First Emperor, while the questions on mathematics and the study of things were set by Li Nian.

The first day of the first lunar month is the beginning of the year in later generations. It is not the first day of the new year at this time, but it is the day when the Xianyang examination is held.

Before the First Emperor proclaimed himself emperor, the news that a major examination would be held in Xianyang had already spread throughout the world. Within a few months, many people were attracted to Xianyang by the examination.

As far as Li Nian knows, there are more than 3,000 applicants. In later times, this may not be as many as the number of applicants for the college entrance examination of a high school, but it is already very impressive in this era.

First, the literacy rate is low, second, transportation is inconvenient, and third, not everyone is willing to come.

It is quite good that more than 3,000 people came to take the exam.

At the hour of Mao, Fan Zeng arrived outside the examination room.

He hated Qin very much and wanted to restore Chu, but when he heard the news of the examination in Xianyang, he thought about it and ran over. He had no other reason but to come and see what the King of Qin was going to do.

He had also read "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu and knew that "If you know yourself and the enemy, you will not be in danger in a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, you will win or lose. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will be in danger in every battle." If you want to defeat a powerful enemy like the Qin Dynasty, you must first understand the Qin Dynasty's movements.

This is a military camp near Xianyang, and is now used as the site for the Xianyang examination.

After being inspected by the Qin soldiers at the camp gate, Fan Zeng entered the military camp and looked for the examination room No. 8 where he would be today.

He had been there a few days ago when the Qin people organized them to check the examination room, so he found the examination room easily.

He found seat number 23, which was written in Qin seal script and two unfamiliar symbols, and sat down. Fan Zeng took out the inkstone, bamboo tube, ink stick, pen, etc. from his bag to prepare for the exam.

After he was fully prepared, Fan Zeng began to look at the other people in the examination room. Most of them were middle-aged and elderly, and there were not many young people.

Although many people were looking at the examination room like him, it was obvious that no one was in the mood to communicate. Instead, when he looked at the person on his right, that person nodded at him.

This man was a middle-aged man with a very sturdy physique. Even when he was sitting there, he was much taller than him. He didn't look like someone who should be able to read and write, let alone pick up a sword and fight on the battlefield.

However, one cannot judge a book by its cover, and one cannot measure the depth of the sea. Although this man looks like someone who would go to the battlefield, he might be quite knowledgeable, even better than Fan Zeng?
Fan Zeng returned a salute to the man and then closed his eyes to rest. It was said that this exam would use something called "paper", but he didn't know how the paper would be used in the exam.

Before Fan Zeng could rest for too long, a voice came from the front: "Everyone, the Xianyang exam will begin in a moment. If anyone needs to go to the toilet or has not prepared their pens and ink, you can go to the toilet and report to get pens and ink. Once the exam begins, you cannot leave until the end of this exam!"

As soon as the voice fell, someone stood up and walked out. Fan Zeng thought about it and decided to go to the toilet. It was said that this exam would take an hour and a half. He was over fifty years old. What if he couldn't hold it in?
When Fan Zeng came back, he found several more Qin soldiers in the examination room.

These Qin soldiers naturally came to supervise them.

Not long after Fan Zeng returned to his seat, he heard a "dang" sound and a man walked in from outside. It was the man who had just asked them to go to the toilet, but now he had an extra bag in his hand.

The man held up the bag in his hand and showed it to everyone in the examination room, saying, "This is where today's exam papers are. Each person can only take one paper. The person who gets the paper should pass it to the back. You cannot take more than one. This exam is a policy test and will last for one and a half hours."

"When the time is up, even if you have not finished answering the questions, you must stop writing immediately. During the exam, you are not allowed to walk around, leave the exam room, talk, peek at other people's papers, or affect other people's answers. If you are found to have done any of the above, your exam results will be invalidated."

(End of this chapter)