At the end of the Han Dynasty: a stingy husband from his hometown

Chapter 315 The imperial examination was established, Cao Cao was upset

Even though the wealthy family members were unwilling to do so, they still had no choice but to retreat in the face of Zhuge Liang's unsheathed sword and the fierce public opinion of local powerful and humble scholars.

That's not wrong.

In addition to humble scholars, this storm also has local powerful people adding fuel to the flames.

If it were the Eastern Han Dynasty, because local powerful people needed to rely on aristocratic families, they would try their best to get the children of the clan to serve as officials in the dynasty. The interests of both parties could be described as sharing weal and woe.

The aristocratic family has been aloof for a long time, and they look down on the local rich people from the bottom of their hearts, thinking that they have no family education and inheritance and are not worthy of serving as high officials in the court.

This is why, even with the local influence of the Zhou family in Pei State, it is difficult to serve as an official with two thousand shi in the court.

The cake is so big. Since the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the county has only had one quota of filial piety and incorruptibility every year. The children of aristocratic families and the descendants of the county governor's family are not enough, so how can they be given to the local powerful?

Even in the period of Emperor He, considering that the population base of different counties was very different, this kind of inspection and promotion system was not good for counties with large populations, and optimized the original system of one filial and honest quota for each county.

Since then, the quota for promoting Xiaolian has been changed based on population. If the population exceeds 200,000, one person will be promoted to Xiaolian every year, and if the population exceeds 400,000, two people will be promoted to Xiaolian every year. If the population is less than 200,000, every two years. If the population is less than 100,000, one person should be promoted as Xiaolian every three years.

Emperor He of the Han Dynasty established another preferential and lenient system for areas where ethnic minorities live together in border counties.

In the thirteenth year of Yongyuan, an edict was issued that for the border counties of Youzhou, Bingzhou, and Liangzhou, if the population exceeds 100,000, one person can be promoted to Xiaolian every year, if the population is less than 100,000, one person can be promoted every two years, and if the population is less than 50,000, one person can be promoted to Xiaolian every three years. One person is promoted to be filial and honest every year.

The reformed inspection system seems to be more reasonable, but in fact the quota is still very precious, and it has made prosperous counties with large populations more prosperous, while remote counties with sparse populations have gradually withered.

Taking the fifth year of Yonghe in the Eastern Han Dynasty as an example, Nanyang County, known as the number one county in the world, has a population of 243 million, and it can recommend twelve Xiaolians every year.

But for the vast majority of counties, due to their relatively small population, only one or two filial piety candidates can be recommended each year.

There are also many remote areas with vast territory and sparse population. The registered population of the entire county is less than 50,000, and it takes three years to recommend a filial piety officer.

Don’t think that there are very few counties like this.

In the fifth year of Yonghe reign of the Eastern Han Dynasty alone, there were fifteen such counties, most of which were concentrated in You, Bing, and Liang prefectures.

For example, Bingzhou Shuofang County, which has the smallest population, has only 7,000 people registered in the county's household registration.

Of course, the official registration may not be accurate. In remote areas, the court is beyond the reach of the government. There may be many people who hide their fields and households, and the ethnic minorities living there must not have been registered.

With such a small population, filial piety quotas are naturally extremely rare.

Even if Nanyang, Runan and other counties with large populations seem to have a large number of Xiaolian places, compared with the number of aristocratic families in the territory, it is not worth mentioning at all.

Rare things are valuable, and the same is true for filial piety and honesty.

Especially the two thousand stone senior officials who can control Xiaolian's quota, it is impossible for the aristocratic family to give up to the local powerful, no matter how powerful they are.

Because once a powerful family has someone who can serve as a high-ranking official in the local area, they can exchange filial piety and integrity with other aristocratic families, and then quickly expand the family's influence, and eventually become a real aristocratic family.

However, the aristocratic family also knows the influence of the powerful in the local area. Although they will not give up their quota of Xiaolian or give them the opportunity to make a leap, they will try their best to win over the powerful and recruit a large number of children from the powerful clans as local officials. To enrich the government office.

As time went by, the entire Han Dynasty formed a ruling class with aristocratic families as its backbone and local powerful people as its branches.

It’s not that Hao Qiang hasn’t thought about going further.

However, the branches of this ruling class do not allow them to come up to carve up their own interests.

In the past, the powerful were unable to resist, so they had no choice but to please the family and let more members of the family serve as local officials. This way the family could still prosper.

Now, with the opportunity to change their destiny, the local tycoons will naturally not continue to act as green leaves for the wealthy families. Instead, they will choose to stand with the poor people and prepare to completely crush the privileges of the wealthy families.

The influence of the poor men may be limited, but if the powerful are united, they can dominate the local area with one hand, which is even worse than the big families.

After all, the aristocratic family is not like a powerful person who can only take root in the local area. They focus all their energy on the court, and their influence on the grassroots is not as good as that of the local rich people.

Supporting powerful people and suppressing aristocratic families is also a step in Zhou Qi's plan.

In this struggle over the selection system, we must clearly distinguish who are our friends, who are our enemies, and who can be coaxed and exploited.

There is no doubt that aristocratic families with vested interests are enemies, poor scholars are friends, and local powerful people are potential allies who can be drawn into and exploited.

As long as the powerful start to take sides, even if all the aristocratic families in Chu State rebel, Zhou Qi will have the confidence to wipe them all out without shaking the foundation of the country. After all, most of the so-called grassroots officials are originally powerful.

As long as there is no chaos at the grassroots level, there will be no chaos in Chu.

Faced with the intensifying storm, the Prince of Chu finally spoke up and summoned all the famous Confucian scholars, leaders of aristocratic families, powerful representatives, and outstanding students from poor families in Chu State to hold an unprecedented scale discussion in Xiangyang, and finally decided on the future of Chu State. selection system.

Although Zhuge Liang came from a noble family, as the initiator of this storm, and the half year he served as the governor of Jingzhou, the cases he handled were convincing, and he was regarded as a leader by many students from poor families and elected him as a representative.

In order to ensure the smooth holding of the conference, Zhou Qi mobilized almost the entire army of Jingzhou and entered a state of martial law from Xiangyang to other places.

After two months of great discussions, under Zhou Qi's deliberate guidance, thousands of representatives participating in the conference finally determined the new selection system for Chu State in the future, which was the imperial examination system!

The so-called imperial examination means abandoning the original examination system, using the method of selecting scholars by opening subjects, and setting up provincial examinations, county examinations, county examinations, state examinations, general examinations and imperial examinations from the bottom up.

Anyone who is a citizen of Chu State can participate in the imperial examination.

The reason why there are so many procedures from the provincial examination to the palace examination is not only to prevent mediocre people from gathering in Xiangyang and lowering the quality of the entire imperial examination, but also for the sake of the poor scholars at the grassroots level.

In this era, transportation was not developed, and traveling far away meant spending a lot of time and money.

For aristocratic families and powerful people, these are nothing.

But for scholars from ordinary or even poor families, perhaps going to Xiangyang a few times to take the exam will bankrupt themselves.

In fact, some scholars from poor family backgrounds could not even pay for the trip to Xiangyang.

First hold the provincial examination, that is, take the examination locally, which can not only win over a large number of people who fish in troubled waters, but also save the travel expenses of traveling far away to take the examination.

The most important thing is that Zhou Qi also explicitly stipulated that for those who have excellent scores in various subject examinations and whose families are poor, the local government must prepare round-trip travel expenses for the next examination.

That means that if a poor scholar passes the provincial examination with excellent results, even if his family is impoverished, he does not have to worry about the travel expenses to and from the county examination.

The county examination is not too far away and may not cost much travel expenses. However, in the future, scholars from many places will have to travel long distances for county examinations, state examinations and joint examinations, and the cost will definitely be considerable. For those scholars from poor families, , which is an extremely heavy burden.

If you have excellent grades and have a place that can provide financial support, you can ensure that your talents will not be buried.

Under normal circumstances, the local government is willing to provide financial support to scholars with outstanding academic performance. If they prosper in the future, it will also be a good thing for their hometown.

In addition, the imperial examination is divided into civil examination and military examination. Literary examinations are divided into many categories, including Confucian classics, poetry, arithmetic, law, Ming Yin and Yang disaster studies, etc.

Among them, Ming yin and yang disaster science includes astronomy, geography, divination and other miscellaneous studies.

These types of disciplines were actually established as early as the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. During the period of Emperor Han'an, Nanyang Zuoxiong even proposed changing the electoral system.

In order to ensure that the people recommended by local officials had real talents and learning, Zuo Xiong suggested to the court that the filial piety and integrity recommended by the local officials should be assessed. Confucian scholars would test the classics, and the literary officials would test the chapters to judge whether they were really talented and learned.

If the exam is not passed, the quota of filial piety and integrity will be cancelled, and the recommended officials will also be held accountable.

Zuo Xiong's move greatly eliminated the shortcomings of the imperial examination system, and at least ensured that those recommended would not be mediocre. This led to the fact that even at the end of the dynasty, the Han Dynasty was always full of talented people and extremely powerful.

Therefore, when the contents of the imperial examination and civil examination were announced, it did not cause much disturbance in the Chu State.

At least during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the contents of these examinations were the necessary qualities required by the court for those who were promoted to be filial and honest. Xiaolian may not be an all-rounder, but at least he can take on major responsibilities in some aspects.

Those children from aristocratic families who are qualified to be promoted as filial and honest will at least have an advantage over those from poor families when taking the imperial examination.

Of course, the specific examinations for the literary examination were very complicated, and the content included in them was constantly being improved through discussions among great scholars from various places and senior officials of the imperial court.

The imperial examination had only one purpose, which was to select people who could be truly useful to the court.

As for martial arts, they are roughly divided into three types.

First, those who excel in military strategy, geography and history, and military training and employment will be trained intensively, and will have a greater chance of becoming generals in the future.

Second, there are tests on personal martial arts, horsemanship, and archery. Those who excel in these tests will mostly serve as officers at the grassroots level and be responsible for leading the charge during wartime.

Third, test the knowledge related to ordnance and be able to manufacture commonly used war equipment. Those with excellent results will be recruited into the army's logistics research institute and the army to focus on the research, development and manufacturing of various war equipment.

The initial imperial examinations were not very perfect.

However, Zhou Qi also learned from the experience of later generations of imperial examinations. From the beginning, he required that the names of candidates be hidden in the examination papers to avoid the occurrence of favoritism and malpractice.

From the provincial examination to the general examination, it was a nationwide talent selection. When it came to the palace examination, it was Zhou Qi and the civil and military officials of the DPRK who personally assessed the scholars who could make it to the end.

It is conceivable that if nothing unexpected happens, these people who can be selected from countless students will definitely be reused in the future, and their future is limitless.

After the imperial examination system was agreed upon, Zhou Qi issued an edict to abolish the original imperial examination system. The imperial court summoned outstanding talents in various disciplines to compile scientific examination books, which were printed in batches and distributed to counties.

When the contents of the imperial examination were announced, the Chu State was filled with joy, and even the wealthy families did not resist as expected.

After all, whether it is the content related to the civil examination, or the most favored military techniques and strategies in the military examination, children from aristocratic families with a strong family background obviously have an advantage over children from poor families.

If they can seize the opportunity of the imperial examination, the first ones to rise will still belong to aristocratic families. After all, the vast majority of top talents still come from aristocratic families.

However, as time goes by, the imperial examination system will also break the family's monopoly on the upward path.

However, things have come to this, and the imperial examination is the general trend. Even though the aristocratic family has some resentment in their hearts, they dare not come out to oppose it.

Guanzhong, Chang'an.

But it was said that after Cao Cao captured Liangzhou, he originally planned to plot Hanzhong and then Yizhou.

Unexpectedly, Man Chong, who was highly valued by Cao Cao, died at the hands of Zhou Yu, and Hanzhong was also captured by Zhou Yu.

If Zhang Lu had not surrendered to Chu, Cao Cao would have sent troops to Hanzhong even if he had broken up with Zhou Qi, and would not hesitate to fight Chu.

But when Zhang Lu surrendered, it meant that Cao Cao lost the opportunity to continue to seize Hanzhong.

Although he felt sorry for Man Chong's death, he had no choice but to treat Zhou Yu and could only treat Man Chong's family well.

Just when Cao Cao was recuperating and vigorously developing Liangzhou, a letter from Xiangyang touched the heartstrings of this hero.

The letter was written by Zhou Qi. The content was very simple, with only a few sentences: The imperial examination has been established. Does Brother Meng De still remember the old agreement?

Cao Cao's right hand holding the letter shook, and his thoughts couldn't help but go back to a long time ago.

I think back then, Cao Cao and Zhou Qi were both young men and women full of passion.

Cao Cao was born into a noble family and had an extraordinary family background. He cared about the country and the people, and liked to make friends with heroes all over the world. He was also filled with righteous indignation at the darkness of the court at that time.

Zhou Qi came from a humble background, but he was as sharp as a sword out of its sheath. He actually dared to use his mortal body to avenge his grandfather by beheading Prime Minister Pei. He was deeply loved by Cao Cao.

After Zhou Qi killed Wang Ji, he arrived in Pei State and was hidden in Cao Mansion, where he slept with Cao Cao.

On that day, the two young men talked loudly and exposed the shortcomings of the imperial court mercilessly. They both eagerly hoped to help the building before it collapsed and turn the tide before it fell.

That night, Zhou Qi said: "Open selection, regardless of age, birth, or reputation, the best will win, the weak will be eliminated, only the best will be selected!"

At that time, Cao Cao felt so excited that he couldn't help but clapped his hands and exclaimed: "The best will win, and the weak will be eliminated!"

"What a meritocracy!"

"Zi Yi's words gave me a sudden enlightenment. If the imperial court can reuse talents like Zi Yi, the world can be settled and the Han Dynasty can prosper!"

After praising him, Cao Cao also promised Zhou Qi: If he could really stabilize the country and occupy a high position, he would do his best to implement the imperial examination system. At that time, he also hoped that Zhou Qi could help him.

Zhou Qi also promised: "If that day comes, I will do my best to help!"

Cao Cao stretched out his right hand, his face full of excitement: "I will high-five you. I hope you will live up to your words today."

"Snapped!"

Zhou Qi slapped it with his right hand, his face full of solemnity: "I will live up to what I said today!"

The oaths made in the past are still echoing in my ears.

It is a pity that times have changed, and the close friends who once talked about everything have now become feudal princes in separate factions. The former full of revenge has become a fight for their own interests.

Thinking of this, Cao Cao became a little crazy for a while.

(End of this chapter)