Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 50: Fighting!

The students were writing at their desks, while the fellow villagers waiting beside them had improved their quality by several levels. Even the old man whose voice was so loud that it could shake the river water into waves now covered his mouth and spoke in a low voice.

All things are inferior except reading. In the eyes of these people, reading is the noblest thing. They really cannot bear to disturb those students who are concentrating on their studies.

At this moment, hot tea was brought in from the kitchen of the academy and distributed to the students present, both sides. After all, the weather was still a bit cold and sitting here for an hour was really torturous.

At this moment, the seemingly ordinary writing is like a battlefield full of panic. No one wants to lose. Even when the tea is delivered to their side, the students who are writing do not pick it up to taste it, but just concentrate on writing.

This is actually a spiritual confrontation. Although Xia Lin does not feel any pressure, for these students, they are shouldering the honor and disgrace of the academy and their future prospects.

"Ding Ding Ding"

Qiu Xueguan rang the bell, indicating that the time for copying the essays had come. The students who were responsible for writing the essays on both sides stood up and handed in their essays.

The people of Qi have ten skills: fishing, hunting, farming, building roads and bridges, forging, animal husbandry, spinning and mining. These ten industries are not only the basis for the survival of the people but also the cornerstone of national prosperity. If nothing unexpected happens, most of the policy essays in the exams are about these things.

Anything that criticizes current affairs or ridicules the past and present will be rejected in the first round of examination unless you meet a similar angry young judge. Especially now that the new policy has been introduced, after the six-department joint examination system, the whole Wei Dynasty has a clear goal, that is, if the Jinshi exam cannot enter the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Ministry of Punishment, at least you should enter the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of War, right?
Well, what do the six ministries want? Who wants someone who can curse people with his mouth? Of course, they want someone who can raise questions, find problems and solve problems. Who can't curse to make the sun shine on the incense burner and produce purple smoke just by cursing?

Therefore, the policy papers that everyone is mainly studying now are oriented towards the art of governing the people, followed by the art of war, tax system and legal code.

Why did Xia Lin say that only those who are talented but not appreciated would write poetry? To put it bluntly, the truly great people have no time to write poetry, and those who have time to write poetry are mostly idlers. Cultivating oneself, managing the family, governing the country, and pacifying the world, writing poetry is just at the level of self-cultivation after all.

The six policy essays were placed in front of Academician Qiu. He squinted his eyes and read them word by word. At first, he still had a smile on his face, which probably meant "It's ridiculous for me, a provincial academician, to read policy essays in front of you kids". But as he read more, his expression gradually became serious.

Then he even took out paper, pen and even the school seal. Now not only the students who were writing their essays, but also the parents who were watching outside began to wait anxiously, feeling nervous and anxious.

I have to say that this scholar Qiu has some talent. After squinting his eyes and looking at it for a long time, he actually started to correct it, and he even used red ink to mark it.

Seeing this, many people's hearts began to beat fast. The academic official was the only person in the Wei Dynasty besides the emperor who was allowed to use red-ink comments. Although his rank was not high, his status was extremely high. He even had a school seal and could even deliver articles directly to the central government.

The privileges of academic officials are so terrifying that sometimes people are even willing to spend thousands of dollars to promote an article. This is why Lao Zhang’s fiancée’s family was only an academic official family but was considered a wealthy family in the local area.

Now, this is just a policy essay competition among a group of wild kids, but the academic officials took out their red-ink comments. The significance of this is no longer just a simple challenge.

After reading one by one, Qiu Xueguan was amazed by the essays of both sides. Apart from occasionally circling a few typos and misspellings, he could not find any places that needed modification in his red-lettered comments.

But there is one thing that makes people feel strange, that is, these two articles... How come they seem to be in the same vein? Although the writing styles and brushstrokes are different, it feels like they were written by the same person throughout the whole article?
But there is no basis for this suspicion. He came up with the questions on the spot, the lots were drawn randomly, and he watched the articles being written. It would be a bit too suspicious to say that they were all written by the same person. All we can say is that the standards of these two emerging academies are quite good.

Among the ten strategies, six of them were even more sophisticated than the strategy of this year's champion, which made Qiu Xueguan pay attention. The student took an hour to write the strategy, but Qiu Xueguan took an hour and a half to read it. It started at 7 o'clock in the morning and now it is almost 1 o'clock in the afternoon.

The fellow villagers who were watching had changed one group after another. Except for the students' parents who were still waiting anxiously, the others had already given up.

At this moment, the kitchen began to bring out food. Each person was given a large porcelain bowl with freshly steamed rice, steamed chicken sausage, and winter bamboo shoots and roasted pork. The food was not particularly good, but considering the current era, it was already a very good meal. Many people saved money for a long time to go to the restaurant and only eat this. And sausage... In this era, fat was a very precious and scarce commodity. It was a good thing that it was the New Year and Xinping Township had become rich in the past two years, otherwise it would have been good to have a cabbage to eat.

After the meal, the first round actually did not determine the winner. With both sides eagerly waiting for the result, he could only helplessly announce: "The essays of both sides are very colorful this time. I really cannot make a decision with my ability. However, I will stamp these six essays and submit them to Wenhui Pavilion for other scholars to appreciate and discuss."

This actually meant that the two sides had called a draw. Xia Lin, who was still eating, was the first to speak up: "Draw, right? That must have been hard work for Scholar Qiu. Since it's a draw, let's just start the next game while I finish my meal. So, the Four Talents of Jiangnan, come on together. I've been annoyed with you for a long time. Stop wasting time."

What he said was 100% funny, the way he held the bowl and ate with oil dripping from his mouth was 1000% funny, but at the same time, the expressions of the four talented men who were stimulated to the point of choking on their food almost at the same time and beating their chests and stamping their feet were also 10000% funny.

The scene immediately erupted into laughter, and then these four talented people who had always thought highly of themselves became a little annoyed and started to scold Xia Lin.

They are too embarrassed to say anything unpleasant to the ear and just repeat the same old things over and over again, such as "the arrogant man does not know the immensity of heaven and earth", "he has only written a few articles and yet he calls himself a romantic", and "he has just had better luck, but he is narrow-minded and will never amount to anything", etc.

These words were meaningless to Xia Lin, but in terms of trash talk, Old Zhang, who was sitting there picking out steamed chicken with Chinese sausage from the bowls of the four indignant scholars, was far superior to them.

At this moment, Xia Lin stood up and bowed to the scholar Qiu, then said with a smile: "Mr. Qiu, please give me a topic."

Scholar Qiu coughed, put down his bowl and chopsticks, and straightened his clothes: "This policy essay has not yet decided the winner, so let's start the second round. This first round is a policy essay, and the second round... But since it is a competition between you, there will be no topic. You can choose a topic from these literary talents and laws."

Xia Lin thanked them, stepped back a few steps and sat on the table. "I can see that I feel a little pressured when facing you four, and it would be embarrassing for me to compete with you. Why don't I choose a student from my academy and let him meet you four talented people?"

His arrogance completely ignited the emotions of the four people opposite. If it weren't for their status, they would have already started cursing. However, Xia Lin just sat there with his arms folded. He didn't even show any tension or displeasure on his face. He just casually pointed and said, "Zhu Qi, Tang Yang, Song Chen, Zhou Huan, the four of you go. Remember to save some face for the seniors and don't waste too much energy."

After saying this, he smiled and said to the four talented people in front of him: "These four guys are the students who are responsible for sweeping the floor in this country academy. Their families are poor and they have not received much education. If you lose to them, don't go back to your mother crying."

Seeing him so arrogant, the "Four Talents of Jiangnan" could no longer hold back. The four of them stood up and slammed the table, sneering: "If we win, don't blame us for taking away your academy's card."

"Even if you win, there's still one more round to go. Why are you in such a hurry?"

Xia Lin laughed, and he glanced at the person he named, nodded slightly but didn't say any more nonsense.

It was just that the four people he named were all half-truths. Although these four people were indeed from poor families who had never been to school for a few days and could barely make a living by working and studying in the academy, they did not think about why such people were qualified to work and study in the school run by Xia Lin. Of course, it was because these four people were extremely talented, and Xia Lin really couldn't bear to see such superb talents buried, so he kept them and taught them personally whenever he had time.

Among these people, some are good at poetry, some are good at policy essays, some are good at music, and some are good at legal codes. They can be described as dragons trapped in shallow waters, and they are definitely not something that ordinary people can provoke.

As for the four great talents, Xia Lin considered them to be a bunch of complete idiots with nothing but good looks... Oh, they had no looks at all. The appearances of these four people were so ugly, how could they be compared with these carefully selected original geniuses.

"The first time you were the first to choose the topic, this time it should be our turn, right?"

Hearing this, Xia Lin just smiled and crossed his arms and said, "Please do as you please, but please don't blame Mr. Qiu for the unfair judgment. What do you think, my four brothers?"

(End of this chapter)