Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1099 Imperial Examination
Cao Cao didn't look very happy. Xun Yu's death in Shouchun was a thorn in Cao Cao's side. When he sent Xun Yu as an envoy, it was because he had broken up with Xun Yu and was planning to abandon him.

But Xun Yu really died in Shouchun, and Cao Cao was suspicious that there must be some inside story that he didn't know.

But he couldn't pursue the matter of Xun Yu any further, so he simply put all the blame on Yuan Xi. The other party was not clean anyway, so wasn't it he who detained Lu Su?

But today, Zhong Yao brought up the matter again, which brought back unpleasant memories for Cao Cao, so he asked Zhong Yao: "Why, Yuan Chang feels that there is something fishy about this matter?"

"Are you saying there's something wrong with Wen Ruo?"

Zhong Yao said: "From Xun Lingjun's perspective, he has always had one leg on the emperor's side."

"I'm just guessing."

"The imperial edict from Xionghu was most likely brought over by Xun Lingjun."

Cao Cao showed a hint of surprise at first, then a look of relief, but he still denied it: "Your guess is bold, but it is not reasonable."

"If the emperor wants someone to smuggle something out of Xudu, there are many ways to do it. Why does he have to find Shang Wenruo?"

"Isn't he afraid that Wen Ruo will turn around and tell me?"

"What good is there for the emperor to do something so risky?"

Zhong Yao said, "Of course it's because Xun Lingjun is not that kind of person."

"Also, the time when this edict appeared is very interesting. It happened to be not long after Xun Lingjun passed away. So I suspect that the emperor also asked Xun Lingjun to do something at the same time, so Xun Lingjun handed the edict to Xionghu before his death."

Cao Cao's expression turned cold, "What's the basis?"

Zhong Yao shook his head, "No."

“But at the same time, something else happened.”

"Queen Fu was executed."

"Ming Gong should be able to guess what I want to say."

Cao Cao suddenly laughed, but his laughter was filled with anger. "Yuan Chang, from the beginning to the end, you have been making groundless accusations!"

"Are you trying to say that Empress Fu did not die, but was rescued by Dong Zhao, and then as a deal, the emperor gave the evil tiger edict?"

"But do you have the slightest evidence?"

"I don't know why you want to drag this matter onto Dong Zhao. You two were the first to submit a petition on my behalf. You are both loyal ministers. Why are you suspicious of each other?"

Zhong Yao's expression remained calm, "I am not targeting Dong Zhao, but clearing up hidden dangers for my lord."

"I really have no evidence, this is all my guess."

"But the evidence is not hard to find. It's just outside Xudu City."

"As long as we dig up the queen's grave, open the coffin and conduct an autopsy, all the truth will be revealed."

Cao Cao was startled, then burst into laughter, "You are quite courageous. Excavating the Queen's tomb is a serious crime."

Zhong Yao said calmly: "Mingsong naturally has many ways."

He thought to himself that it was you who killed the queen, so why did you care about digging up her grave?
Cao Cao stared at Zhong Yao for a while and said, "You don't have to tell anyone else about this. I will arrange it."

After hearing this, Zhong Yao knew that his goal had been achieved, and he quickly bowed his head and accepted the order.

He heard Cao Cao say, "There is a high probability of a major war this year. To prevent any unexpected events, I want to establish a crown prince as soon as possible."

"Who do you think is suitable?"

Zhong Yao knew that this was the real reason why Cao Cao summoned him to Yecheng. He had already made up his mind, so he said without hesitation: "I have already made my mind clear and have never changed. I support the second son to be the crown prince."

The second son was Cao Pi. Cao Cao was not surprised to hear Zhong Yao say this, but continued to ask: "Why?"

Zhong Yao said: "Because only the eldest son can fulfill Minggong's wish."

"The Second Young Master is still young, and there are many people around him with ulterior motives. If the Second Young Master listens to their slander, he will probably give that person a chance to breathe in the future."

"By then, all your years of hard work may be wasted."

Cao Cao fell into deep thought. Zhong Yao's words were exactly what he wanted and hit the nail on the head. Although Cao Zhi was smart and much more likable than Cao Pi, he had a fatal problem: he was easily influenced by others.

Cao Zhi often spoke for Liu Xie, which obviously meant that some people around him were whispering that if Cao Zhi came to power, would the Cao family end up being the King of Wei?
Cao Cao was silent for a long time before he said, "But Pi'er is in poor health, I'm afraid it will affect his offspring..."

Zhong Yao was stunned when he heard this for the first time. He hesitated for a moment before saying, "This is not a problem at all." "If the Second Young Master has no children, he will find other children of Ming Gong to adopt sooner or later. It's the same."

"But whether he can take the final step, I think only the second son of the Cao family can do it."

Cao Cao thought to himself, isn't this just using Cao Pi again?
However, Zhong Yao spoke from Cao's perspective throughout the whole process, so Cao Cao could not ask for anything, so he nodded and said, "I understand."

"What I said today cannot be told to any third person."

"You should withdraw first. We will discuss the deployment of troops in a few days."

After hearing this, Zhong Yao bowed respectfully and took his leave. After he left, Cao Cao ordered someone to call Xun You.

Although Zhong Yao and Xun You were extremely loyal to Cao Cao, Cao Cao was not prepared to let them serve as important ministers to whom he would entrust his son. Zhong Yao had too complicated a mind, and such a person should not be allowed to monopolize power, otherwise he would be the second Yi Yin or Huo Guang.

The same was true for Xun You. Among the Xun family, Xun Yu and Xun Chen supported Cao Zhi, and only Xun You bet right on Cao Pi. But the more this was the case, the more Cao Cao could not allow the Xun family to become stronger. After all, the power of either the Xun family of Yingchuan or the Sima family was too great. If they were allowed to gain power, the descendants of the Cao family would be controlled by them.

Therefore, among the important ministers chosen by Cao Cao to entrust his son to, there was Chen Qun, who had very little experience.

Chen Qun was set up as Xun Yu's son-in-law. He was born with a stain on him, and he formed a clique with Xun You. However, this time Xun You, who was more experienced, lost the election, and the two of them would inevitably have conflicts. At that time, the two of them could only seek credit and favor from Cao's heir, and this small group would no longer exist.

This is the king's strategy of internal strife and checks and balances, which prevents subordinates from forming a group, but instead makes them directly loyal to the lord. At the same time, they can check and balance each other without affecting the unity against external enemies. This is the most ideal situation that the lord hopes to see.

The method Cao Cao adopted was to use the Yingchuan gentry to conquer the world in the early stage, and when the Yingchuan gentry became powerful in the later stage, he would divide and suppress them, and use other newly emerging gentry forces to contain them, so as to achieve a balance in the court.

This balance is very delicate. If the means are not handled properly, it may collapse. This is what happened to Yuan Shao. Although Cao Cao repeatedly said that he would not follow Yuan Shao's old path, in fact, his practices were no different from Yuan Shao's.

Cao Cao knew that this approach was very dangerous, but now that he had been crowned King of Wei, he realized that this was the only way for the Cao family to gain power.

The aristocratic families were domineering and authoritarian, suppressing the imperial power and turning against the emperor. There have been enough histories in the Eastern and Western Han Dynasties over the past few hundred years, so whether it was Cao Cao or Yuan Shao, they would eventually follow the same path.

Yuan Xi was no exception. Even though he employed a large number of low-level officials, it was impossible for him to completely break away from the support of the aristocratic families.

Although he tried out the imperial examination system in Youzhou, the imperial examination system was not a panacea to save the feudal system. On the contrary, the following two thousand years of history have proved that if the imperial examination system was in the hands of the bureaucratic group, it might instead become a tool for them to seize power.

Now he was explaining to Zhuge Liang why the imperial examination system was adopted for selection, but at the same time the official system of the Han Dynasty could not be completely abolished.

He said to Zhuge Liang: "The Han court's selection of filial and honest officials has indeed become a tool for the aristocratic families to rise to prominence, but such officials do not actually account for the majority."

"In fact, the real backbone is those who started out as clerks, handled government affairs, and gradually rose to the ranks of officials."

"Although they lack some knowledge of the classics, their actual work is no worse than those high-ranking officials who have inherited the knowledge of the classics from their families."

Zhuge Liang was somewhat surprised when he heard this and said, "I thought that my lord had some respect for the classics."

He had a reason for saying this. The so-called aristocratic families, in addition to having ancestors who were high-ranking officials of the rank of 2,000 stones, also had to pass down the study of Confucian classics, which was also a criterion for judging whether they were considered top families.

Just like the Yuan family passed down the Yijing from the Meng family, the Yuan family was the only authority in the field of interpretation of this classic. Other major families also had their own unique fields of classics. This was also a tacit understanding of etiquette reached among the gentry in the world.

After hearing this, Yuan Xi said disdainfully: "They are just using Confucian classics to fight for the right to speak. In the past few thousand years, the methods people have used have not changed much."

Naturally, he hated this practice. Why did the imperial examination eventually deteriorate? Because there was actually no big problem with the Four Books and Five Classics that were tested. The problem was that the format of the subsequent examinations became a test of the collected annotations of the Four Books and Five Classics.

The right to interpret the Four Books and Five Classics is the most critical issue. Every dynasty has a system of interpretation, and the standards of interpretation are ultimately controlled by the bureaucratic group in power. If you want to pass the imperial examinations, you must learn their system. Other interpretations are wrong, and naturally you will not pass the exam.

The imperial examination system took advantage of this loophole and combined it with the mentor-disciple system to completely seize the right to interpret the scriptures step by step. The alienation of the teachings of Confucius and Mencius by Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism and the expulsion of Mencius from the Confucius Temple were all manifestations of this kind of usurpation of the magpie's nest, which eventually turned into a joke that Confucius and Mencius did not understand the teachings of Confucius and Mencius.

The imperial examination system, which originated in the Tang Dynasty and was perfected in the Song Dynasty, constantly sought changes and encroached on imperial power during the Song and Ming dynasties. This was the feudal landlord bureaucrats' natural desire for imperial power, and its essence could not be changed with the changes of the times.

The imperial power would naturally not tolerate such a phenomenon. From the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Song and Ming Dynasties, the imperial power had been fighting with the bureaucratic groups. All these hidden dangers were deeply buried and finally broke out to the peak, which was the Ming Dynasty's North and South List Case.

Although most people know about this incident, many people don’t know that Zhu Yuanzhang died the following year. What happened to the imperial examination system during the reign of Emperor Jianwen?

The truth is, the chief examiner of this imperial examination was a native of Jiangxi. Under his chairmanship, the North and South lists were re-engraved, and the northerners were wiped out again, and the situation became even worse.

Among them, more than 70% of the Jinshi candidates came from the three provinces of Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Fujian. Half of them came from Jiangxi, and six of them were in the top ten. They also occupied the top three places in the imperial examination, becoming the biggest winners in this long imperial examination.

Except for the three provinces of Jiangxi, other provinces in the south did not gain any advantage, and the north still gained nothing. This seriously disrupted the imperial examination system and caused dissatisfaction among most landlords and scholars.

The most direct consequence was that when Zhu Di started his rebellion, the northern and southern provinces that had suffered losses in the imperial examinations responded one after another. Emperor Jianwen, who was supported by only three provinces, was defeated. In the end, the Jinshi from the three provinces whom he valued were of no help. On the contrary, many people were killed, and the emperor did not recover for many years.

From this point of view, Zhu Yuanzhang's killing of the chicken to scare the monkey actually gave the southern landlord bureaucratic group a chance to survive. Unfortunately, these people thought that Zhu Yuanzhang was dead, so they became more and more aggressive and put themselves in a dead end.

Politics is a process of mutual compromise. If you don't give others any benefits, they will naturally turn the table.

This shows that no matter how fair and reasonable a system seems, if it is controlled by short-sighted bureaucratic groups, it will eventually become the source of unrest. Yuan Xi has seen too many such things in history, so what he and Zhuge Liang have to do now is to prevent such things from happening as much as possible.

(End of this chapter)