Reborn in the late Northern Wei Dynasty

Chapter 197 Improving Finances
Immersed in joy, Gao Cheng named his eldest son Bodhisattva Nu, and his second son Ajin.

The Bodhisattva Slave is naturally Gao Cheng recalling the joke about the Bodhisattva giving birth to Er Zhu Ying'e when he recalled the first time in his life.

As a crop that is used as food and vegetables, it is impossible that Gao Cheng wants to eat his son, but he just hopes that Erlang can support him well.

The baby name can be chosen freely, but the first name must be solemn. Gao Cheng named the eldest son Gao Xiaozhang, and the second son Gao Xiaoyu.

The word Zhang is enough to explain Gao Cheng's expectations for the eldest son. He never thought about whether Gao Xiaozhang could survive himself when the father and son were only 17 years apart.

Gao Cheng sent someone to send the two names to Jinyang for Gao Huan's opinion.

The beloved daughters were not left behind either, Gao Cheng hadn't named them, but just called Yuan Mingyue's eldest daughter A Mi.

On the night of waiting for her birth, Gao Cheng dreamed that he was on the bank of the Luoshui River, and the God of Luo came by the wind.

And A Mi's second daughter, who was a day late, was born to Xiao Erzhu, whose baby name was Guo'er, and she hoped that she would become his happy fruit.

The safe birth of two sons and two daughters made Gao Cheng happy, but also able to devote himself to government affairs with peace of mind.

After resting for five days in a row, in the early morning of the sixth day, Gao Cheng was in the Ministry of Education early on, reading letters from poor students from all over the place.

They sent the letters to the local government offices, and the prefects and counties arranged for couriers to send them to Luoyang.

Those passionate words and the accusation of injustice made it difficult for Gao Cheng to let go of it for a long time.

Ask yourself, the main purpose of his imperial examination is not fairness.

It is the secondary reason that they can bear the distinction between good and bad among the children of the gentry, and all of them are officials.

Through the imperial examination, the power of electing officials was recovered from the localities to the central government, and the centralization of power was weakened.

Every student who becomes an official needs to be selected by Gao Cheng. Through us, he can either serve in the central government or let the local government go, so as to completely control the country in various departments, instead of sending a confidant as the governor in the past.

That is the main purpose of Low Cheng.

It is also the reason why we set out to create the imperial examinations after we waited for the unity.

Relative fairness is just a matter of convenience.

The regression of the times has always been accomplished overnight. If it hadn't been for the slaughter in the late Tang Dynasty, it would have been difficult to transfer power from the gentry to the poor families before the Song Dynasty.

Low Cheng has to wait so long. The imperial examinations I created are the same as the imperial examinations in the Sui and Tang Dynasties to protect the interests of the powerful.

It can be admitted that knowledge is now controlled by the gentry, and the recorded officials are destined to be seldom from the gentry.

But as long as we adhere to the principle of emphasizing talent and family background, we will promote elementary education and official education at all levels through the establishment of imperial examinations.

The development of printing technology transfers knowledge from aristocratic families to folks.

Before I was born, I would definitely see students from poor families rise up in the court.

After all, I am only 11 years old, and my age is the smallest capital.

Even if it takes 70 years to promote culture and education and cultivate a small number of outstanding talents from poor families, I will still be 81 years old and in my prime.

The most important reason why Gao Cheng was obsessed with cultivating students from poor families was that children from poor families born in imperial examinations were different from noble families: it was difficult for us to threaten the imperial power.

An enlightened person like Li Shimin would also kill Li Junxian unjustly because of Qin Niangzi's baby name.

To change that feeling, we need the rise of a poor family. Whether we have the support of family strength, we may be lucky enough to have several generations of retired soldiers, but in the end, it is no threat compared to the hundreds of years of accumulation of the poor family.

In the final analysis, when the Sipin Zhongzheng was abolished and the imperial examinations were instituted, Low Cheng's original intention was to safeguard his own interests.

It's just that my interests are in line with the demands of poor students.

Gao Cheng read the letter for a while, which was often mixed with the maintenance of the four-rank Zhongzheng system, and continued to read it.

The coldness of the students' letters was too enthusiastic, and if they really wanted to read each letter, it would be nothing else to do in the next few days.

Gao Cheng ordered someone to invite Gao Longzhi over, and told me all about his ideas on woodblock printing, movable type printing, and lead movable type printing.

That also attracted the attention of Gao Longzhi, who is familiar with fortifications, and I vaguely mentioned the importance of printing to the promotion of knowledge.

Whether woodblock printing and movable type printing have too little technical content, the key lies in the inspiration of geniuses.

As for type printing, Gao Longzhi led the Ministry of Industry to study it quickly.

But what Gao Cheng lacked was patience. I told Gao Long to have the block engraved first, using "Four Chapters of Arithmetic" and other scientific examination books as templates.

Gao Cheng handed over the eight parts to Gao Longzhi and Sun Teng.

Dilong led the eight departments of engineering, soldiers, and households, and Sun Teng led the eight departments of officials, punishment, and rites.

The handing over of the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War to Gaolong is naturally to give full play to my fortification expertise. Whether it is the manufacture of farm tools or siege equipment, I don’t have such a professional personnel, so I will always be more reliable.

The Ministry of Households is entirely because it can hand me over to Sun Teng together with the Ministry of Officials.

Sun Teng has also come to Luoyang now, and as soon as Li Changyi arrives, he will be ready to marry you and Yuan Yuyi together.

Yuan Yuyi's elder brother, Yuan Bin, also needs to go to Jinyang as a slave, but being a slave in Luoyang may be more tormenting for me, especially when I have no old contacts with Sun Teng's mansion.

On the fourteenth day of July in the eighth year of Taichang, the great emperor held another court meeting at the instruction of Gao Cheng.

Gao Cheng ordered people to divide the future letter into two parts and move them down to the court.

None of the baskets expresses the maintenance of the four-rank Zhongzheng system, while the rest of the baskets are full of public complaints against Shigong.

"Your Majesty! That's not public opinion!"

Low Cheng pointed to those letters and said to Yuan Shanjian.

The materialized public opinion also had a very small impact on everyone. Did you dare to argue with Gao Cheng, saying that the nobles are the people, and the rest are nothing but mud legs.

In the face of raging public opinion, no one sticks to the four-rank Zhongzheng system anymore, and Gao Cheng also successfully obtained Yuan Shanjian's will to create a system for selecting officials that can replace the four-rank Zhongzheng system.

The court meeting was dissolved before Gao Cheng led the decree.

Gao Cheng returned to Zhongshu Province, and wrote down everything that he and his cronies had said that day under the memorandum.

The end of the four-rank Zhongzheng system means that the imperial examination system has become the only system for selecting officials, and the system of multi-yin officials will also be preserved.

The so-called shadow official refers to the retreat into the officialdom by virtue of the father's shadow.

In order to prevent the phenomenon of more officials and fewer officials due to the yin official system, Gao Cheng will also assess the yin students, and the difficulty will be on par with the county examination. In order to prevent cheating, it will be presided over by Gao Cheng himself in Luoyang.

It is equivalent to being an official without the knowledge of a scholar.

That also put an end to the possibility of officials' children who know everything and corrupt political affairs.

That's it, Gao Cheng will also set certain restrictions on the future of Yin officials, and the children of officials who are really lacking in learning will naturally take the serious imperial examinations, and only those with poorer talents will receive Yin.

As for the investigation system, Gao Cheng decided to let it die together with the fourth-rank Zhongzheng system.

After all, the imperial examination system covers farming, fortifications, criminal law, arithmetic and classics.

Those who are really incompetent can always find a way to advance among the seven subjects that are involved in each other.

As for the punishment of inventions and creations, Gao Cheng will also focus on conferring titles and material punishments, which basically involve official positions.

Unless it is an achievement comparable to "Qi Min Yao Shu".

Gao Longzhi's manuscripts would always be transcribed by hidden spies and sent to Luoyang for Gao Cheng to read.

It's a pity that I have come into contact with agricultural books in my next life, so I ended up memorizing them silently, and I have to wait.

Now Gao Cheng is like a reader chasing updates, waiting for the author to update. Whenever he hears the report, Gao Longzhi will take a friend out on a trip one day, although Gao Longzhi is sending blades.

But people will warn this friend to waste Gao Longzhi's precious time.

As time went on, almost all my close friends, except Gao Longzhi, who was created by Shen Xin, knew how much Gao Cheng valued me and this agricultural book.

No one dared to disturb Gao Longzhi anymore.

Those are prefaces. Gao Cheng determined the official selection system based on the imperial examination system and supplemented by the yin official system.

And then held a court meeting to discuss with the officials. Gao Cheng explained his good intentions clearly, and because of my power, no one dared to criticize me.

So Gao Cheng ordered people to announce the official selection system to the sky for everyone to comment on.

The imperial examination system, which is the main way to select officials, can win the support of countless people only by emphasizing talents and seeing who they are.

But there are not many people who have expressed their opinions. They all feel that the eight-year exam is too long. I hope that Gao Cheng can shorten it as appropriate, and change it to a two-year exam, or even a year.

Gao Cheng laughed off those opinions: If you think well, you can pay for the official salary.

Well, Dadi Wang really feels that he completely regards the national treasury as his own private property, which can be regarded as a different kind of dedication to the public. After all, the public property is all my private property.

No one suggested that more people be admitted each time, so that the exam can be done once a year, and there are fewer chances for candidates to make mistakes.

But how could the stingy Dadi Wang agree, he really thought that organizing the scientific examination was a waste of money.

When it comes to expenses, Gao Cheng really has a hard time.

The opening of the imperial examination itself was not difficult for Gao Cheng. The entire Eastern Wei Dynasty was a talk between our father and son, who dared to understand what he felt.

The real difficulty lies in the establishment of county schools, state schools, seven levels of government schools, and the expenses of promoting elementary schools in various places.

It’s a lie that the Eastern Wei Dynasty was stingy and rich. Back then, they turned to Buddhism for alms, and the household registration harvest was used to support the army, and the money and food collected from the search had long been used up.

The household registrations checked in Hebei, and the income tax are also used to start horse administration in Henan and Hebei.

It stands to reason that if we put it aside after this year and live tight, we can squeeze out that expense.

However, the small defeat in the Western Expedition caused a very small burden on this year's finances. It only mobilized nearly 70 civilians and affected the spring plowing.

Even more because of the loss of [-] Chinese soldiers, the pension for their families is also a small expense.

That's why Gao Cheng was cruel. For those family members who have not escaped, he only guarantees that we will starve to death.

In the eighth year of Taichang, on July 74, the Zhongshu Province issued a decree to officially abolish the four-rank Zhongzheng system and the examination system, and the imperial examination system will be the main method of selecting officials.

At the same time, the details of the imperial examination system and the content of the examination are made public.

It will not be a year before Taichang ends the first imperial examination.

For a time, all literate people were scrambling for books.

And Gao Longzhi had already ordered people to complete the engraving and printing of various books related to the imperial examination, and ended the printing production.

Gao Cheng also ended my first means of improving finances: book monopoly.

　It is still developed separately, there is one chapter before twelve noon, and the remaining two chapters are in the evening.

　　Thanks to book friend 20211010064149969 for the reward

　　
　
(End of this chapter)