《巴山秀才》

晚清光绪二年，两宫太后垂帘听政时期。

巴山连年干旱，知县孙雨田吞没赈粮，饥民百姓求赈不得，筹划上告，欲请老秀才孟登科代写状子，孟登科两耳不闻窗外事，一心只读八股书，婉言谢绝饥民。孙雨田为了掩盖贪污罪行，抢先赴省谎报巴山民变。

四川总督恒宝不查虚实，下札剿办。记名提督李有恒惟命是从，率兵血洗巴山。

孟登科目睹惨案，逐步觉醒，从明哲保身变为仗义鸣冤，但书呆气十足，不识官场奥秘，与虎谋皮，险遭杀害，幸有巴山歌姬霓裳从中斡旋，救出书呆。孟登科痛定思痛，直面惨淡人生，正视淋漓鲜血，毅然抛弃功名，痛改迂阔习气，巧妙利用省试机会，在考卷上书写冤状！

主考官张之洞，与川督恒宝积怨已久，趁势借题发挥，回京直奏，震动朝廷，引起两宫内讧，迫使慈禧派遣亲王入川查办冤狱，平息民愤，并赐孟顶戴花翎、御酒三杯，孟登科不识阴谋，喜饮御酒，中毒而亡。

Xiucai of ba mountain

In the second guang xu year of the late qing dynasty, mountain ba area suffered from droughts in successive years.The county magistrate sun yutian defalcated relief grain rom the government.Deprived of relief food,the hungry people planned to appeal to a higher court.They went to ask an old xiucai(a low rank ancient scholar)meng dengke,to write a grievance for them to sue.Being only interested in improving his skills in"the eight-part essay(stereotyped writing required by government examination for selecting officials)and was unconcerned about anything happening outside his window,meng dengke politely declined the hungry people.Meanwhile,to conceal his crime of defalcation of relief grains sun yutian went to conceal his crime of defalcation of relief grains, sun yutian went to the provincial government and reported false information that civilians in mountain ba area stared a rebellion.The govent of sichuan province.Hengbao,did not confirm the information,instead,he sent an aram led by li youheng to suppress the nonexistent rebellion having a previons good service and waiting for opportunities of promotion,the army prefect li youheng was absolutely obedient to heng bao and gave orders of massacre having seen the massacre,meng dengke gradually awakened from hisillusions and changed from having only concern of his own safety to working for justice.He tried to appeal the injustice,however,because he had been pedantic,he did nt understand the dirty politics of the corrupted government.He attemped alliance with a hiddenenemy and put himself in great danger fortuately,a female singer ni shang saved him.Alarmed by this painful experience,meng dengke gave up his expectation yo becomeing an official.He took the opprtunity of the provincial examination and wrote a grievance for the injustice on the examination paper.The chief examin-ation officer zhang zhidong had accumulated rancor against the provincial governor heng bao.He took advantage rancor against the provincial governor heng bao.He took advantage of this grievance and reported to the imperial court.The court was shocked.Ci xi had to send one of herinfantes to investigate the injustice and appease the mass indignation ci xi’s infante conferred meng dengke an offical hat with peacock feathers(which indicated official ranks)and three cups of imperial whine meng dengke failed to recognize the intrigue and drank them.He was poisoned.