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Chapter 119 Gold List Title
At the beginning of April, the Jinshi list of Dingweike Palace examination was published. Wang Jiazhen No. 1, Zhuang Yuanchen No. 2, Wang Zheng No. 3 Jinshi were ranked first!55 people were born in the second-level Jinshi, and 143 people were born in the third-level Jinshi.

The number one scholar, Wang Jiazhen, was a genius. He was only 26 years old and was born in Fanxiang, Henan. He could not speak at the age of ten, but he could read at the age of five or six, and he was familiar with the art of war in his teens.When playing with friends, they often arrange troops to attack and defend each other, simulating war scenes.

In the 31st year of Wanli, Wang Jiazhen, who was only 22 years old, won the imperial examination. If the examination had not been suspended after the death of Emperor Wanli, he would have been able to pass the Jinshi next year.But waiting three more years is not necessarily a bad thing. It would be even better to be the No. [-] pick all at once.

So how did he win Hong Tao's approval?Two words, insight!As an ancient person who has never read any later books, to be able to fully understand the geography and natural functions of the Great Wall cannot be explained by cleverness and hard work. It must have a high degree of talent.

No matter what others think, Hong Tao feels that this is a malleable talent. He is not a traditional talent who sits in an office and writes pens and talks, but a military talent who is capable of both literary and military skills and has a unique vision!
If nothing else happens, after a few years of hard work in actual work, a little more personal influence, and familiarity with the role of thermal weapons, it will be more than enough to be the commander-in-chief of a border town, or the minister of the Ministry of War.

Zhuang Yuanchen, second place on the list, is a weirdo. He is 47 years old this year and is from Songling, Suzhou. He has no interest in geography but has unique insights into humanities.

In the policy question, there is not a few words about the Great Wall. The whole article is an exposition of Confucianism and Buddhism, and it is advocated that Confucianism is not necessary for governing people.Don’t be a myna who just follows what everyone else says, have your own voice.

In the Ming Dynasty, which revered Confucianism, people dared to openly question mainstream ideas and had a roughly formed ideological system. Courage alone was not enough. They had to be supported by real things.

Hong Tao is not a pure science and engineering man. He only values ​​technical personnel because of practical needs, but he never believes that physical and chemical machine guns and artillery alone can govern the country.

Thought is not optional. If you want to change the brain circuits of people in the Ming Dynasty, steel and gunpowder alone will not be enough. You must be supplemented by thinkers.Zhuang Yuanchen is such a talent!

Tanhua Wang Zhengshuang is a wizard. He is 36 years old and is from Xi'an.He grew up in his grandma's house, and his uncle Zhang Jian was a great Confucian scholar in the Guanzhong area.The strange thing is that he did not inherit his uncle's mantle, but instead was keen on studying mathematics, and even thought about some mechanical manufacturing when he had nothing to do.

Last year, Xu Guang started Ma Jinglun's newspaper to publish the "Algebra" column and posted the questions written by Hong Tao to teach children. Wang Zheng accidentally saw it and couldn't put it down. He immediately packed his luggage and told his family that he would go to Beijing to take the exam. Winter is coming with a lot of dust.

After more than three months of getting along day and night, Wang Zheng gained a lot. He also saw a lot of machinery manufacturing materials in Xu Guangqi's hands, and he cried and insisted on becoming his disciple.

Xu Guangqi did not dare to make any decisions, so he had to ask the emperor for instructions.After Hong Tao carefully inquired about Wang Zheng's background, he allowed him to go to Tianjin Wei's machinery factory to observe and take advantage of the opportunity to join the preparations for the construction of the Royal Arsenal.

With Xu Guangqi as his teacher and contact with Matteo Ricci's group of missionaries, Wang Zheng's understanding of the world immediately improved several levels. He got the best results in answering policy questions and was closest to Hong Tao's original intention.

It’s just that Hong Tao felt that he might have learned about similar topics in advance from Xu Guangqi and others, which was tantamount to cheating in advance, so he was downgraded to No. 3 for the sake of fairness.

Wang Jiazhen was a military talent, so he naturally went to the Ministry of War and became the chief of the Arsenal and Cleaning Department; Zhuang Yuanchen was interested in thinking and was a student in the Hanlin Academy, so he had time to do academic work; Wang Zheng was a technical talent and a disciple of Xu Guangqi, an engineer. Yu Heng, the professional counterpart of the Qing Dynasty Department of Officials, also started from being in charge.In addition to the top pick in the list, there are many talents who have appeared in the examination of this subject... No, according to Hong Tao's concept, they should be regarded as historical celebrities. Just pick any one and they will be famous in the late Ming Dynasty.

Gu Dazhang, Zuo Guangdou, Yang Lian, Zhou Chaorui, Yuan Huazhong, Sun Chengzong, Xiong Wencan, Jin Shijun, Zhen Xianshi, Yang Sichang... Hong Tao was not sure whether there were any others left out. There were only ten of them in his memory, so he passed them all Passing the palace examination is all based on his background as a second-class Jinshi.

According to historical records, Gu Dazhang, Zuo Guangdou, Yang Lian, Zhou Chaorui, and Yuan Huazhong are all backbones of the Donglin Party. Among the famous Six Gentlemen of Donglin in history, only Wei Dazhong is missing. They are all of the same age.

According to Hong Tao's governing philosophy, cliques must be suppressed in the court. Knowing that these people are the future backbones of the Donglin Party, why don't they just use pens as knives to finish the work, and still choose to be Jinshi?

Indeed, when Hong Tao saw these names, he immediately had the idea not to choose.In ancient times, no matter how hard you worked, as long as you couldn't join the establishment and become an official, everything was in vain.This is tantamount to taking a step back and unknowingly avoiding future troubles.

But when I think about it next year, I feel that doing so would be too narrow-minded and too timid.The causes of party strife in the late Ming Dynasty were very complex. We cannot simply put all the blame on one party, let alone be subjective.

Some people in later generations think that they are all bad people when they hear eunuchs. This is a sign of not reading or thinking about history, and has been brainwashed by textbooks since childhood.Some people think that the Donglin Party’s empty talk is misleading the country, which is also extreme.

In court politics, there have been no clean people since ancient times, let alone clean things.As long as you join in, you will be considered a dirty, despicable, shady, and shameless villain.The reason is simple, anyone who does not possess these qualities is not qualified to play.

In other words, if you tell the truth every day, specifically fight against the leaders for the sake of the people, and are unwilling to step on the shoulders of others to make progress, you will not be able to survive in the officialdom even if you win the first prize, let alone rise.

Then the question arises, if you are just a ninth-grade small county official, do you have the opportunity to make a voice in the court, can you become a loyal minister or a corrupt official, and can you have the opportunity to harm or save the country?

If you want to get this opportunity, you must first survive in the officialdom, and then climb to a high position step by step and gain a certain amount of power.And if you want to do these two things, you must go along with it.Those who emerge from the sludge but remain unstained will only be regarded as outliers by their colleagues, and will be abandoned because they do not meet the technical parameters of the entire system.

In addition, according to the information currently obtained from various aspects, except for Yang Lian and Gu Dazhang who have close contact with Donglin Party members, the remaining three have no obvious political leanings.

To put it bluntly, they are all newcomers who have just entered the official career. Before the eunuch party and the Donglin party are in the same situation, there is no need to rush to take sides. What kind of changes there will be in the future depends partly on themselves and partly on the court environment. It's hard to draw a conclusion yet.

(End of this chapter)