webnovelvip Chapter 309: Handwritten exam questions are extremely easy to leak!
Chapter 309: Handwritten exam questions are extremely easy to leak!
Seeing that even the prime minister of the country had given such high praise, the other officials, no matter how bitter they felt, could only lower their heads helplessly.
However, at that very moment!
In the crowd, Shaofu Zongyu, who had been silent all along, suddenly stepped forward with a cold expression, bowed, and said:
"Your Majesty, I admit that the Immortal Master's question was indeed exquisite. However!"
Zong Yu turned to look at Zhang Fan, his gaze sharp. "The exam questions are good, but as everyone saw, the 'Administrative Aptitude Test' questions are densely packed, numbering over a hundred, with an extremely large amount of text! If tens of thousands of students across the country were to take the test, the sheer number of these exam papers would be like a vast ocean!"
"May I ask, Immortal Master, if we were to copy so many exam papers by hand, how many clerks and officials would be needed? How much manpower and resources of the Qin Dynasty would be required? How could the Imperial Treasury possibly support such extravagance?"
Upon hearing this, the officials, who had been suppressed and unable to lift their heads, were immediately invigorated and began to whisper among themselves.
"Lord Zong is right!"
"With so many characters, even a skilled scribe couldn't copy ten exam papers in a day. Tens of thousands of exam papers—how long would that take?"
On the high platform, Ying Zheng also had a furrowed brow.
As an emperor, he clearly considered things on a deeper level than Zong Yu.
It's not just a waste of human and financial resources!
If a large number of people were to be mobilized to hand-copy the exam papers, the risk of the exam questions being leaked would increase dramatically once the number of people handling the task grew.
If the exam questions are leaked in advance, wouldn't the imperial examination become a pointless exercise?
The atmosphere in the main hall became heavy once again!
The officials from powerful families were secretly pleased. It seemed that this problem would ultimately prevent the project from being implemented perfectly!
"Ahem!"
Just as everyone was discussing this, Zhang Fan suddenly coughed twice loudly.
Everyone immediately fell silent, turning their gazes to Zhang Fan.
Zhang Fan, instead of showing any sign of worry, crossed his arms and smiled:
"My lords, before you worried about manpower, financial resources, and exam leaks, didn't you carefully examine the exam papers in your hands? Did you find anything... unusual?"
abnormal?
Upon hearing this, everyone lowered their heads to examine the test papers in their hands.
After looking at it for a long time, apart from the clear handwriting and the rich ink smell, I couldn't see anything strange about it.
"Immortal Master, stop making a fuss! These are just ordinary paper and ink, what could be so unusual about them?" an official said impatiently.
"wrong!"
Suddenly, a horrifying shout rang out in front of the officials!
Everyone was startled and turned to look. They saw that Prime Minister Li Si was holding his own exam paper in one hand and tightly gripping Zong Yu's exam paper next to him with the other.
His old eyes widened, and a layer of cold sweat instantly broke out on his forehead!
Immediately afterwards, Li Si, as if possessed, snatched the examination paper from another official behind him, held the three papers side by side in front of his eyes, and stared at them intently.
"This...this...how is this possible?" Li Si trembled violently, as if he had seen a ghost in broad daylight.
Seeing Li Si's flustered state, Ying Zheng was extremely curious and immediately asked in a deep voice, "Li Si, what have you discovered? Report back immediately!"
Li Si swallowed hard, held the exam paper, and stammered as he shouted:
"Your Majesty...Your Majesty! The handwriting! The handwriting on these exam papers is exactly the same! There's no difference whatsoever!"
"What?"
Upon hearing this, the officials in the hall were first stunned, then suddenly realized what was happening and quickly gathered in small groups to compare their exam papers.
The next second, the entire Qilin Palace erupted in chaos!
"My God! They're exactly the same! Look at this character 'Qin'—the pause at the beginning of the stroke, the sharpness at the end—it's like they were carved from the same mold!"
"And here! In the first question, next to the character '朝' (cháo), there's an extremely subtle ink smudge. Yours has it, and mine has it in the exact same spot!"
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible! No matter how skilled a scribe in the world is, even if I were to write it myself, it would be impossible for the same person to write the same character twice and achieve the exact same length, thickness, and spacing of the strokes!"
"This is insane! I must be dreaming! These hundreds of exam papers, tens of thousands of words, are written as if by the same person at the same instant! What kind of divine skill is this?!"
"Immortal Master... Could it be that the Immortal Master used magic to instantly conjure these exam papers?"
As the officials looked at the exam papers in their hands, their worldviews were subjected to an unprecedented and intense shock!
Gasps of shock filled the air, and the eyes that looked at Zhang Fan were filled with fear!
Hearing the exclamations of the officials, Ying Zheng, who was on the high platform, personally looked down and compared the test papers in his hands with those in the hands of Eunuch Li. His eyes lit up!
Become!
Sure enough, this kid pulled out something else... what's it called... black technology!
However, as one of the greatest emperors in history!
Ying Zheng suppressed his inner excitement, his face remaining inscrutable.
He leaned back slightly on the dragon throne, looking down at Zhang Fan with a calm tone, "Zhang Fan, since none of the officials understand, you should explain to them how these identical exam papers were created."
"Here you go!"
Zhang Fan smiled slightly and cupped his hands in greeting to Ying Zheng.
Then he turned around, looked at the group of officials who were still questioning their existence, and loudly uttered four words:
"The art of printing!"
Facing the bewildered and shocked gazes of the officials, Zhang Fan strode to the center of the hall and explained in a clear voice:
"Do you gentlemen really think these exam papers were written stroke by stroke? You are sorely mistaken!"
"I ordered the craftsmen to carve these exam questions in reverse onto a flat wooden board in advance. This is the 'carving board'! When it's time to print the exam papers, simply brush ink evenly onto the carving board, then place the white paper produced by the Great Qin Paper Mill on top of it, and gently brush it..."
Zhang Fan made a downward pressing motion with both hands, his eyes sweeping over the entire audience:
"In the blink of an eye! The clearly printed exam papers were completed!"
"With this 'printing technique,' only one or two ordinary craftsmen are needed to easily print tens of thousands of exam papers in a single day!"
Not only is the handwriting absolutely flawless, but it also completely eliminates the need for a large number of scribes. Moreover, by simply deploying heavy troops to guard those few meticulous craftsmen, the risk of leaking the exam questions can be minimized!
Zhang Fan's voice echoed throughout the main hall.
A dead silence!
Everyone was speechless with awe at the power of printing.
The principle is actually so simple!
Papermaking and printing techniques, combined with the exam questions, shattered the knowledge of powerful families and clans into dust at that moment!
However, right in this deathly silence!
A ruthless glint suddenly flashed in Shaofu Zongyu's eyes!
If Zhang Fan were to confirm his achievements in the imperial examinations and printing today, these aristocratic officials would have no place in the imperial court in the future!
Since they can't compete in terms of knowledge and political skills, they have no choice but to use their backup plan!
"His Majesty!"