Daming: Apocalypse of Longevity

Chapter 207 Imperial Examination Craze
Now that the imperial examination reform has been promoted for more than a year, it is not ruled out that some geniuses can spend more than a year learning all the content of elementary school, junior high school, and high school, especially those who are recruited. They can directly participate in the provincial examination, and the imperial court cannot Registration for the provincial and government exams will not start for preparation.

The new imperial examination adopts the system of registering in advance and then uniformly arranging examinations, mainly to facilitate the imperial court to count the number of candidates taking part in all levels of examinations across the country in advance, and to facilitate Zhu Tianqi's preparation of examination papers.

After the registration information was reported to the Ministry of Etiquette, Xu Guangqi reported the situation to Zhu Tianqi. As Zhu Tianqi expected, there were more than 300 people who signed up to take the provincial examination this year, and the majority of them were scholars from Jiangnan. It seems that education and The economy still does not separate families!

The number of people who signed up for this year's prefectural exam is even more, tens of thousands, and the number of people who signed up for the county exam has reached 10,000+.

In fact, under the new imperial examination, the difficulty of the county examination has been greatly reduced. If you want to pass the county examination, it is already very simple for a child to pass the examination. Not to mention for adults, even for some children, it is not too difficult. Great difficulty.

After all, the county exam covers primary school content, and the passing standard is only passing. As long as a person with normal intelligence has studied for a period of time, there will be no problem.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty also set off a craze for taking the imperial and county examinations. As long as they had the conditions to study and take the examination, they would strive to take the examination and return as a child.

Although Tongsheng is not a glorious name, nor does it have any status privileges, it is still considered a position of fame. In the past, there were many people who could not pass the Tongsheng exam or spent their entire lives as Tongsheng, but even if they were just Tongsheng , I can already be a teacher in a small place and be respected.

So the people of Ming Dynasty all took the exam without knowing it. Originally, there was a wave of people who loved to join in the fun and took the county exam for fun. After all, the cost of the exam is now very low, free and fast, and it is nothing more than Just a waste of half a day.

When everyone discovered that the county exam had become so simple, and it was very simple to take the exam for a child, they went to the county school to pick up books and study, and more people signed up to take the county exam.

And as more and more people passed the exam, those who had no intention of taking the county exam began to become anxious. After all, the people around them were all Tongsheng, but I was not. That was really a bit inferior to others. Feel.

After the reform of the imperial examination, the imperial court has canceled all the restrictions on the imperial examination. As long as the people of Ming Dynasty, no matter what their status is, they have the right to participate in the imperial examination. Therefore, they are peddlers. If they have time and energy, they also want to take the examination once. Take a chance.

Because if you don’t take the exam, you can’t do it. Seeing that there is no name for a child, life is getting more and more difficult. Like the affluent places in the south of the Yangtze River, many industries have begun to set up "educational requirements", that is, to be a small accountant Man, you have to be a boy.

Zhu Tianqi customized the test papers in the Krypton Life Store according to the number of people reported by the Ministry of Rites, and then sent Jin Yiwei to deliver them to various places. The imperial examination in Tianqi's 11th year began as scheduled.

Regarding this year's imperial examination, Zhu Tianqi is most concerned about the more than 300 candidates who signed up for the provincial examination. Although some of these people are candidates themselves and have the privilege of directly participating in the provincial examination and come to explore the way and test the waters, there will definitely be a day Regardless of the genius, those with real talents and practical knowledge, who can pass the provincial examination in the second year of the imperial examination reform, will definitely be the pillars of the Ming Dynasty in the future.

The paper judging work began. Among the more than 300 examination papers, only a dozen people had a passing score. But even so, it had far exceeded Zhu Tianqi's estimate of the paper judging results. It would be hundreds of years later. In today's modern society, how many people can master the knowledge of the three stages of primary school, junior high school and high school in more than a year?
Zhu Tianqi is also concerned about the candidates who failed to pass the provincial examination, especially those who are close to the admission line and failed to pass the provincial examination. These people can be considered to be extremely intelligent, but they are just unlucky and will definitely be able to succeed in the coming year. high school.

As for those test papers with very low scores, Zhu Tianqi was not interested. It was obvious that those people were those who had passed the Juren Examination before. They signed up to take the provincial examination just to explore the way and test the waters. They had not yet learned anything. Make it home!
When looking at these examination papers, Zhu Tianqi suddenly saw a very familiar name, which surprised him.

"Zhu Youjian?!" Zhu Tianqi rubbed his eyes and confirmed again that he had read it correctly, and then called Wang Yuanbao over, "Go to the Ministry of Etiquette and ask who this exam paper belongs to?"

Wang Yuanbao immediately took the examination paper and ran out of the palace to confirm the identity of the owner of the examination paper.

After Wang Yuanbao left, Zhu Tianqi suddenly came to his senses. It seemed that there was no need for him to send Wang Yuanbao to the Ministry of Rites to confirm the matter. I am afraid that no one in the world would dare to believe that Wang Zhu Youjian has the same name.

Soon, Wang Yuanbao came back with the examination paper in his hand, "My lord, this servant has confirmed with the Ministry of Rites that this examination paper is made by His Royal Highness Xin Wang!"

Zhu Tianqi nodded. During the period of waiting for Wang Yuanbao, his mood had calmed down a lot, so he was very calm after hearing the news.

When Zhu Tianqi sent Zhu Youjian to Xinyang to join the feudal vassal, he once told him that if he wanted to continue to serve the Ming Dynasty and assist him, he could enter the official position through the scientific examination. Zhu Tianqi had already eliminated the vassal king in the imperial examination reform. The rule of not being allowed to enter the officialdom.

That is to say, the vassal kings are also free to take the imperial examinations, gain fame, and become officials. Moreover, Zhu Tianqi also gave the vassal kings certain privileges, that is, just like juren, they can pass the county examination and the government examination directly. Take the provincial exam.

The reason why Zhu Tianqi did this was not only to prepare for "cutting down the feudal vassal", but also had some small thoughts of his own.

Looking at the history of the great scientists in the West, most of them came from noble families and had a good family background, so they had the conditions and time to study knowledge, do experiments, and make inventions.

So Zhu Tianqi was also thinking that there are countless vassal kings in the Ming Dynasty, and not all of them are mediocre people. The court spends a lot of money to support them every year, so it is better to select some talented people from them and let them devote themselves to science. Woolen cloth!
As for the matter of "cutting down the feudal lord", it is naturally different from the previous one, which was to prevent the feudal king from rebelling and weaken the power of the feudal king. Instead, it was to reduce the court's expenditure on supporting the feudal king and encourage the feudal princes to leave their comfort zone and find another job. contribute to the society.

Nowadays, there are countless vassals in the Ming Dynasty. The court does not know how much money it costs to support them every year. It is indeed overwhelmed. Therefore, this vicious cycle cannot continue. In the future, this expenditure must be limited and the court's attitude towards vassals must be gradually changed. The support policy allows the vassals to get rid of the bad habit of getting something for nothing and support themselves.

However, although Zhu Tianqi has always wanted to do this, he has never been able to do it, because he is afraid that once he reduces the supply to the vassal kings, the vassal kings will be dissatisfied, and some thorns will inevitably appear, and maybe even It is not certain that they will unite to rebel.

Although Zhu Tianqi is a foreigner and has no relationship with these old Zhu family princes, after all, everyone is named Zhu. Once a fight breaks out in the nest, the impact will be too bad.

Therefore, this matter should be investigated slowly. It is believed that Wang Zhu Youjian's participation in the imperial examination can be used as a breakthrough.You must know that although Zhu Tianqi has reformed the imperial examination and relaxed the restrictions on vassal princes not to participate in the imperial examination or to serve as officials in the court, the vassal princes in various places are used to being well-dressed and well-fed in their own fiefdoms. The matter had long since ceased to be a concern, so except for Zhu Youjian, no one came to take part in the imperial examination.

If you want to mobilize the enthusiasm of the vassals, you have to let them see the sweetness. You can set Zhu Youjian as an example among the vassals, and let him be better than other vassals, so that the other vassals can be better. Will be tempted.

This matter should be discussed in the long run, so Zhu Tianqi then put Zhu Youjian's test paper back into the pile of test papers, and told Wang Yuanbao: "Notify the Ministry of Rites that since the judgment paper has been completed, let's release the results!"

In this year's imperial examination, there are still tens of thousands of people who passed the county examination and were admitted to Tongsheng, and almost more than half of the candidates passed the examination.

The pass rates for the prefectural and provincial exams, which were launched for the first time this year, were not satisfactory. Only 2000 people passed the prefectural exams, less than one-fifth of the number of candidates who signed up to take the exams, and those who passed the provincial exams were unsatisfactory. There were only a dozen people.

Now that the first university in Ming Dynasty has been built, it can accept students to study in it. The dozen or so candidates who passed the provincial examination all chose to enroll and continue their studies, and none of them chose to wait for an official to do it directly.

After all, they were already juren before taking the provincial examination. After waiting for so many years, they have yet to find any suitable position. Everyone also knows that there is no future in becoming an official as a juren, so if they want to make it big To become an official, you have to go to university to continue your studies.

Although the University of Ming Dynasty was rebuilt from the Imperial College and is relatively simple, it is small and well-equipped. No matter which subject you want to study and research, you can find the corresponding courses and materials in the university, as well as some simple experiments. Equipment, these were purchased by Zhu Tianqi in advance at the Krypton Life Store.

On the opening day of the first university in Ming Dynasty, Zhu Tianqi came over in person and delivered an important speech to the first batch of enrolled students.

"I know that it is the deep-rooted thought of scholars that 'learning in literature and martial arts will bring wealth to the emperor's family'. Your participation in the imperial examination is nothing more than to gain fame one day, be granted a title of marquis, become a prime minister, and honor your ancestors.

But today I want to tell you that studying is not just for being an official or for glory and wealth, but to gain real talent and learning through reading and studying.

With your true talents and practical knowledge, you can express your ambitions. Whether it is to save the people from water and fire, or to help our Ming Dynasty become prosperous and powerful, you can do it, and our Ming Dynasty will also be able to achieve great success because of you, the pillars of our country. And more prosperous and powerful!
Therefore, you should not study to become an official, and do not study to get rich. You should study for the sake of studying. You should study hard and study seriously. Only in this way can you become a truly useful person! "

The speech was not very exciting, but it was enough to make these scholars feel refreshed. In short, they had all kept the emperor's instructions in mind. Moreover, it was indeed impossible to become an official in recent years. So it’s better to calm down and do some learning first.

Although there were only a dozen students in the first batch of the first university in Ming Dynasty, each of them had their own ideas. When they entered the university and understood the learning model in the university, they chose their own courses according to their own interests and ambitions. Subject.

Some chose to study agriculture, believing that progress in agricultural technology can fundamentally drive the prosperity of the country; some advocated violence and decisively chose to study firearms; some liked mathematics and soon became addicted to the ocean of mathematical knowledge and could not extricate themselves. ; Some like to do business and begin to eagerly learn advanced economic and management knowledge...

A month later, on the screen wall at the entrance to Ming Dynasty, an inscription written by Zhu Tianqi was engraved - "Read for the rise of Ming Dynasty!"

Every time the students see this sentence, they feel their hearts surging, a strong sense of responsibility arises spontaneously, and they study more diligently.

Time soon entered September, and envoys from the Romanov dynasty arrived in the capital. The Ministry of Rites arranged for them to attend the court meeting in accordance with the rules for visiting foreign envoys.

The envoy of Ross came here this time to intimidate Daming on behalf of the Tsar, and to challenge Daming. Naturally, he acted very arrogantly. In the court meeting in the early court, he could not bow down to the Emperor of Ming.

This instantly aroused strong dissatisfaction among civil and military officials. On the contrary, Zhu Tianqi, who was sitting high under the porch of Huangji, had no waves in his heart.

The Russian envoy looked up at Zhu Tianqi and said proudly: "I came here on the order of the Tsar, just to ask your Ming Dynasty for an explanation. Why did you massacre our Russian troops and invade our Russian territory?

If you, the Ming Dynasty, are sensible, you will withdraw your troops from Siberia as soon as possible and compensate our country for our losses. Otherwise, our [-]-strong Russian army will come out in full force and make you pay a heavy price! "

After hearing what Messenger Ross said, Zhu Tianqi was not angry. Instead, he laughed, as if he had heard some big joke, laughing so hard.

The same goes for the civil and military officials below. At first, they couldn't help but laugh. Later, when they saw that the officials from the Ministry of Etiquette who were responsible for supervising appearance started laughing themselves, they finally couldn't help laughing.

Messenger Ross was stunned. He really didn't know what was so funny about what he just said. Moreover, everyone was looking at him like a clown and laughing, which made him even more embarrassed.

Finally, the Ross messenger who couldn't bear it became angry and shouted angrily: "Since the Ming Dynasty has such an attitude, then we have to meet on the battlefield!" After that, he turned around and walked out of the Meridian Gate quickly.

But Zhu Tianqi looked at the retreating figure of the Ross messenger and said with a smile: "Have you seen how ridiculous a small intimidation is in the eyes of the strong?"

(End of this chapter)