I want to be emperor

Chapter 1158 England Imperial Examination

John Taylor, who took over the task, selected several members of his subordinates to go on a business trip together that day.

It has been some time since John joined Strait Trading Company. After a few months of training and familiarity, he was quickly placed in his proper position as a team leader.

Although the European Straits Trading Company is rich, it will not treat a regular employee as an ordinary employee. The labor cost of recruiting a regular employee is comparable to recruiting three or four temporary workers.

Therefore, the indigenous formal employees recruited by Straits Trading Company are used to serve as middle and low-level managers and some more important regular positions.

As for ordinary civilian employees, they are actually temporary workers.

Otherwise, the position of full-time indigenous employees in the Straits Trading Company would not be so in demand. Every time one or two spots are released, a large number of elite indigenous talents apply.

After John brought a suitcase to the company the next day, the three subordinates were also ready. They each brought suitcases with daily necessities and prepared a four-wheel carriage in advance.

The four people got on the carriage and rushed to the pier, where they boarded a small passenger ship.

The Yuehua, a passenger ship belonging to the European Shipping Company, is not large, with a displacement of only five to six hundred tons. It is a typical small offshore passenger ship. It is mainly responsible for offshore passenger navigation in the British area. It has been on duty in this area for seven years. Eight years.

Most of the passengers carried are foreign workers or permanent residents who can enter the rental industry, as well as some foreign indigenous people with passports and visas, and a few Chu people.

It is worth mentioning that the Chu people don’t like to see foreign natives wandering around. At the same time, in order to avoid a large loss of population, the indigenous kingdoms generally restrict the cross-border movement of the population... Labor is a precious wealth, and the indigenous kingdoms are not willing to lose their population. ; The Chu State wanted to avoid the movement of a large number of indigenous people, which would cause a series of troubles.

After both parties had corresponding needs, through a series of agreements, and finally under the instruction of the Chu State, each indigenous country formed a passport plus visa system to restrict population movement.

Therefore, the Chu people have certain restrictions on the indigenous people in cross-border transportation. They require the indigenous people to present passports and visas issued by the local indigenous government, otherwise they will not be able to buy ferry tickets.

Of course, these restrictions only apply to foreign indigenous people in the conventional sense. Foreign workers who work for Chu people, that is, those who have obtained temporary labor certificates, do not have these restrictions.

As for permanent residents like John, they are legally regarded as Chu people living in the administrative territory, and are naturally not subject to the corresponding legal restrictions governing indigenous people.

Therefore...in order to avoid many troubles, many indigenous people will find ways and even spend a lot of money to obtain a labor certificate.

The Chu people also turned a blind eye to this, and even directly opened the way to invest or donate to obtain labor certificates... to make money!

Because whether it is the Chu people or those indigenous countries, the purpose of restricting population mobility is to prevent a large loss of labor force... and the labor force can basically refer to middle- and lower-class people.

These low- and middle-class people cannot obtain labor certificates through investment or donations.

These restrictive measures have resulted in the fact that there are actually very few ordinary middle- and lower-class indigenous people on cross-border ships or trains in Europe.

Either the upper class among the indigenous people, foreign workers with labor certificates, permanent residents, or finally the Chu people themselves.

Do you want to say whether this will lead to insufficient passenger flow...well, that will be the case in regions. But don't pay attention to the fact that whether it is trains or ships, their main role is not to transport passengers, but to transport freight. This is especially true in overseas areas. ...The passenger flow itself is not large.

Only in the densely populated and economically developed areas of East Asia will the passenger flow be very large, and even form an annual Spring Festival travel phenomenon.

But in other places, the main role of railways is to transport goods, and passenger transportation is only incidental.

And this is also the reason why the Chu Empire is still building large-scale railway networks in its vast overseas territories and even in indigenous areas... It is not to serve the indigenous people and make their travel more convenient... but to facilitate the transportation of materials and make it easier for the indigenous areas to travel. The minerals, agricultural and livestock products and other products produced can be transported to the mainland of East Asia at cheaper transportation costs.

In terms of shipping, it is even more obvious.

Among the tens of millions of tons of merchant ships existing in the Dachu Empire, most of them are ships used for freight. The ships used for passenger transportation actually occupy a very small area.

It is these tens of millions of tons of merchant ships that maintain the global economic system of the Chu Empire.

In such a huge merchant ship tonnage, the capacity occupied by the passenger transport business is actually very small.

This is also true for European shipping companies operating in Europe. Among the more than 200 merchant ships under the jurisdiction of European shipping companies, there are only more than 40 passenger ships, and they are generally small in tonnage, with hundreds of ships in total. There are small offshore passenger ships between tons, and most of them are merchant ships for both passenger and cargo. There are actually very few purely passenger ships, only seven or eight in total.

The remaining one hundred or so ships are all large-tonnage cargo ships, some of which are large ships of five or six thousand tons.

European shipping companies have been operating in Europe for more than ten years. Even the earliest shipping companies have a large number of captains who are familiar with local hydrological conditions, and the ships run quite smoothly even in offshore waters.

The ship sailed all the way and soon arrived at Holiday Harbor.

This place is located in the west of Essex and is the mouth of a local river. Although the river is not big, it can also allow ships to penetrate deep into it.

Therefore, after the Chu people came here, they conveniently occupied a piece of land as a concession and established a small port and trading city here, mainly as a trade transit port.

However, just like many concessions established by the Chu people in Europe, although it was nothing at the beginning and the Chu people generally did not pay much attention to it, over time it would still attract a large number of natives to come closer, thus forming a scale comparison. big city.

Just like the London Settlement and East London next to it...

At the beginning, the so-called London Concession was just a wasteland, and East London did not exist. The Chu people only built a concession here to better control the Thames River estuary, built a small fort, built a small port and stationed them there. Some troops were added.

Subsequently, with the growth of trade to the London area, the number of Chu people gathered here also gradually increased, and now there are thousands of Chu people.

The arrival of the Chu people also required a large number of indigenous people to provide various services, so there were permanent residents and foreign workers.

In the contemporary London Concession, there are about 7,000 to 8,000 permanent residents, but there are only more than 1,000 Chu people, and another 3,000 to 4,000 are permanent residents, and the rest are laborers with residence permits.

As for short-term workers who come and go temporarily, they are not included. These people generally live in East London and only enter the rental housing temporarily when work requires it.

As for East London, this place is an indigenous city that developed purely based on the London Concession. However, relying on the London Concession, East London has developed extremely rapidly and has become the largest and most economically developed city in the Kingdom of England. , the permanent population has reached more than 100,000.

As for the old London city, it has declined.

A similar situation exists in Holiday Port. There are actually very few Chu people here. Counting soldiers, there are only two to three hundred permanent residents... In addition to soldiers, there are only a small number of officials plus some The staff of the branch of Chu State Enterprises here are gone.

After all, Holiday Port is a relatively pure trade transit port, and its market is not large, with only a hundred kilometers around it.

On the contrary, there are two to three thousand indigenous permanent residents and long-term workers.

Around Holiday Port, a new indigenous city also appeared. This city was officially named New Norwich by the Kingdom of England. It has a population of tens of thousands, so this place can be regarded as an important place in the southeastern region of the Kingdom of England. A big city.

New Norwich, which is the goal of John's trip, is the hub for their company's market in the entire southeastern England region. A large amount of kerosene docks here and is then transported to various indigenous cities in the southeast for sale. .

Therefore, the Straits Trading Company also set up an office here, with a permanent resident middle-level manager serving as the office manager and a number of long-term labor employees.

The employees of the Holiday Harbor office naturally took the arrival of John and his party very seriously, and held a banquet for John and his party that night.

It is worth noting that at the dinner that day, although all the attendees were indigenous people and there was not a single Chu nationality, the language of their conversation was Chinese... And what is even more interesting is that the place where the dinner was held was a local In a restaurant, there were many other indigenous people eating and drinking in the restaurant at that time. During the dinner, most of these indigenous people also spoke fluent or difficult to pronounce Chinese.

No one spoke the local indigenous language!

Even though they are all natives, and eight out of ten are English, there is no language barrier between them and they need to communicate in Chinese.

However, the fact is that they all know English, but no one speaks English... Not only the guests who come to eat, but also the messengers who serve tea and dishes all speak Chinese.

Because this is a holiday concession, the territory of the Chu people!

And these people present are either permanent residents or foreign workers. They can more or less speak Chinese... Those who can't speak it actually have a hard time entering the concession to work.

And the most important thing is... the Chinese used by the contemporary Chu people is the only language of the civilized world!

The influence of the Chu Empire on the entire world can be seen from its language.

In fact, the Chu people have never forced or even asked these indigenous people to speak Chinese... let alone asked these indigenous people to accept the cultural customs of Chu State.

The people of Chu have little interest in cultural dissemination...

On the contrary, the indigenous people took the initiative to learn Chinese in order to communicate smoothly with the Chu people, to do business with the Chu people, to work for the Chu people, and to work hard for the Chu people.

In addition to this aspect, the officials of various indigenous kingdoms are also vigorously promoting Chinese education. On the one hand, it is to be able to communicate with the Chu people, and on the other hand, all the indigenous kingdoms are learning from Chu.

The Chu Empire was so powerful that it naturally became a learning target for many indigenous countries.

To learn about a country, the superficial military and even political systems are not enough, and it is easy to become acclimatized.

Therefore, many indigenous countries start from the bottom, learning the writing and language of the Chu people, learning the traditional culture of the Chu people, learning the Four Books and Five Classics of the Chu people, and even learning the science that the Chu people admire, etc.

Anyway, learn everything!

When you can't tell the difference between good and bad, and can't confirm what is effective, what you can do is to learn all the good and bad things at once, and then slowly sift through them to pick out the things that are useful to you.

This is almost the same as making a copycat... When you don't understand the purpose of this design and why it is designed like this, the best way is to ignore it, copy it as it is, and then think about it slowly.

Otherwise, problems may easily occur.

Learning from the Chu State is a common choice of the ruling classes of many indigenous countries...but the degree of learning is different.

The Kingdom of England was deeply influenced by the Chu Kingdom. The Kingdom of England had begun to implement government-run Chinese education many years ago, teaching students the Four Books and Five Classics. Then it followed the example of the Chu Kingdom and established the imperial examination system, becoming the first in Europe to adopt the imperial examination system. s country.

From this point of view, it is actually very commendable.

Because this means that the Kingdom of England has abandoned the traditional aristocratic feudal system and begun to move towards a centralized official selection system, and the official selection system is still very advanced!

How advanced is it?

After an Englishman who first entered a lower-middle class achieved academic success, he could also pass the imperial examination and become an official of the kingdom!

You must know that they copied the imperial examination system of Chu State unchanged, and the imperial examination system of Chu State was different from the traditional Chinese imperial examination system.

Strictly speaking, the imperial examination system of the contemporary Chu Empire was actually a very modern official selection system, with the basic principle of ensuring social advancement in a fair and just manner, and it was very different from the traditional imperial examination system.

This system was gradually improved by Luo Zhixue from the traditional imperial examination system after decades of work. It avoided the interference of human factors to the greatest extent and selected different types of talents through different subjects.

As long as you are capable enough and your written test score is high enough to rank among the top, no one can stop you from becoming an official...

In order to eliminate human interference, the Chu Empire first changed the college examination to a preparatory examination for the provincial examination, and abolished the power of the state government to directly recruit officials through the college examination. Candidates who passed the college examination only obtained the qualification to take the provincial examination.

In addition, if you have a college degree, you can directly apply for the provincial examination without taking the college examination.

The contemporary Chu State Academic Examination is a qualification examination specifically for students with high school and technical secondary school degrees to obtain the qualifications for the provincial examination.

Then the test questions are refined and objective, so that the test scores are more accurate, and subjective questions are avoided as much as possible. Finally, only the written test scores are considered.

If the written test score in the rural examination is within the recruitment ranking, then you have passed the examination, and you have the status of an official.

After passing the examination, newly-selected officials fill in their job intentions, and the civil service agency makes a comprehensive allocation based on the demand for official positions across the province, the principle of serving as an official in a different place, the new-successful officials' work intentions, application subjects, rankings, etc.

Popular and important institutions have clear requirements for examination rankings. For example, for several offices directly under the governor's office, the provincial examination rankings must be within the top ten before they can enter.

In addition, there are clear requirements for the appointment and training of new officials at the top of the list, which does not mean that they can be arranged casually.

All of this is to avoid the interference of human factors, give ordinary people with no background a chance to become officials, and give new officials with ability but no background a chance to display their abilities.

Among the many systems in the Great Chu Empire, others may have flaws of one kind or another, but the imperial examination system is definitely the most complete and the one that attracts the most attention.

Every year during the imperial examination, the local garrison directly escorts and supervises the examination papers, seals off the examination rooms, etc.

In the Great Chu Empire, cheating in imperial examinations was much more serious than murder... If there were officials involved, they would basically end up confiscating their families and exterminating their families!

All this is to ensure the most basic fairness and ensure the smooth flow of upward channels...which channel is very small and the competition is super high.

However, it is much better than the European aristocratic system where the upward channels are completely blocked.

The Kingdom of England was the first country in Europe to adopt the imperial examination system. In order to implement this imperial examination system, the Kingdom of England also experienced a lot of turmoil and even rebellions in the past ten years, but they were all suppressed by the royal family. .

The previous rebellion in southwestern England was partly caused by the opposition of local nobles to the imperial examination system.

The imperial examination system took away the power of the nobility.

But although the nobles don't like this thing, the royal families like it very much, because behind the imperial examination is actually centralization of power.

It is hard to say whether the country will become stronger after the imperial examination is implemented, but it is certain that the power of the royal family will increase significantly.

This is also the reason why various indigenous kingdoms are keen to imitate the Chu State in conducting imperial examinations or similar official selection systems, but not many can succeed.

After all, not every indigenous kingdom can use various forces like the Kingdom of England, and even borrow the power of the Chu people to suppress the opposition nobles and vigorously implement the imperial examination system.

And this series of reforms has also made the degree of Chineseness of the English people increasing year by year... Well, part of England's imperial examination system is to test Chinese.

People in England had to learn Chinese in order to become officials, otherwise they would not even be able to take part in the imperial examination.

Now, quite a few of the middle- and upper-class elites in England are proficient in Chinese.

And these permanent residents and long-term workers who work for the Chu people are part of these elites!

In this way, there is a scene where a large group of English people speak Chinese!