unclear

Chapter 120 Only martial arts, no lifting!
The ancients said that if you learn martial arts well, you will be sold to the emperor's family.The examinations and palace examinations were only a means for the imperial court to select talents, that is, literary and military arts.To govern a country well, it is definitely not enough to have civilian officials, so there must be a channel for selecting military generals, such as military examinations.

Speaking of martial arts examinations, the Ming Dynasty did very poorly. It was only in name only in the early stage, but it was implemented in the middle and later stages. However, the examination method was crude and did not meet actual needs, and it did not contribute much to the military.

This is also directly proportional to the military strength of the Ming Dynasty. In the early days, due to the command of many generals with actual combat experience, the Ming Dynasty army was still very capable of fighting.However, after Yongle, the quality of the generals deteriorated year by year, and the country also changed from expansion to active defense. In the middle and late stages, it was basically exhausted.

Why is this so?One word, afraid!From Zhu Yuanzhang to Zhu Di, they were all afraid that military generals would be too powerful and one day take away the throne of the old Zhu family. They could not be more unanimous in their views on suppressing the status of military generals.

As the saying goes, what goes up leads to deeds. If the emperor thought so and acted like this, the court and society would naturally not pay attention to generals. This was fully reflected in the imperial examination and military examination systems.

The martial arts examination is held once every six years, and the examination is divided into three sessions, namely riding and shooting and policy theory.The first test is horse archery, a distance of 35 steps; the second test is foot shooting, a distance of [-] steps; the third test is strategy theory, focusing on ancient military tactics.

Hong Tao learned about the contents of the martial arts examination from Tian Yi half a year after he ascended the throne, grinning as if he had a toothache.The Dutch and Portuguese have brought their cannons to the coast, and even the Vietnamese have used very good quality muskets. But with so many well-educated people in the court, why has no one proposed to change the exam content from hundreds of years ago? ?
This is a graduate of the country's highest military academy. He will serve as a mid- to high-level commander in the army in the future. How can he not even have advanced weapons courses!

Change, must change!It took about ten days to personally compile several martial arts examination subjects, including eight major items, including horse-step archery, horse-step cold weapons, unarmed combat, camp layout, firearms use, art of war, astronomy, and geography.

The result was unanimously rejected as soon as it was presented to the cabinet, and even Li Zhi did not support it.The reason is very simple. Scientific examination is the foundation of the country, and it cannot be changed at will even if it is not taken seriously.If you want to change it, you have to have the six ministries and nine ministers discuss it together, and then fully listen to the opinions of each department. It can take as short as one or two years, but it will be impossible to do it for a long time!

This time Hong Tao didn't stick to his point of view, he mainly insisted on not moving.Now he, the emperor, is not capable of standing up to the entire imperial court, and the problem of military training reform cannot be solved overnight.

Textbooks alone are useless, who will be the teachers and examiners?Education is a slow process. To achieve results, you must continue to invest and be patient. The wait may take ten or twenty years.I have this patience, but others may not.

Forget it!Later, Hong Tao also figured it out and stopped quarreling with the cabinet about the reform of the martial arts examination.With the current situation, even if my reform method is passed, it will still have no effect.

The military is also a large system, from recruitment to training to officer training and combat methods, everything must be coordinated.I can change the selection model for middle and lower-level officers, but I am unable to match it.

If you dare to put your hands into the Ministry of War and the Governor's Mansion of the Fifth Army, you will immediately arouse fierce opposition from civil and military officials. Not only will it not change the status quo, it will also arouse their vigilance. It will be even more difficult to deceive you in the future.

"If you have something to say, just say it. Don't act like you've killed the whole family!" Ever since he discussed the food issue with the Six Ministers and Nine Ministers, Hong Tao found that Wang An's behavior was a little abnormal. Every time he saw him, he was a little distracted and wanted to speak. Stop again.

"Long live the Lord's benevolence to save the world. He used his own money to buy food to help the victims. My slaves..."

"Stop, I will teach in person today, my time is precious. Let's talk about serious things, don't talk nonsense... I forgive you!" As soon as the food was mentioned, Hong Tao roughly knew what Wang An was going to say, and a stone fell to the ground in his heart.

Ever since the new disaster relief method was proposed, I have been waiting for the great eunuch to come and give me direct advice.Come and talk, we are still good friends.If you don't come or say anything, you will immediately behead Ma Su with tears.The new disaster relief law is a big joke. Officials understand it and don’t point out the loopholes in person because it is profitable.But as the emperor's chief steward, if Wang An pretended not to know, his conscience would be greatly damaged.

"Long live the Holy Ming! I think there are many things wrong with this move. After hearing this, officials from various places may falsely report the disaster situation and victims, and work with the feudal princes and clans to pretend to receive food. Even if they empty out the internal funds, they will not be able to feed those sycophants and thieves. I still hope that your majesty will Think twice!”

This is because Wang An grew up with the prince and was familiar with the emperor's temperament, otherwise he would not dare to express his opinions on such issues.

To say it right is to ridicule the emperor to his face for being a fool who is being manipulated by the ministers.If you say something wrong, you are slandering the court behind your back and sowing discord between the emperor and officials.

The officials of the Hexiang Empire, including the clan, are all thieves, and they even dare to embezzle food for disaster relief.Once word spreads, it will offend all the scholars and clans in the world, and they will be killed sooner or later.

"Think twice! If you had said it two days later, it would have been a luxury to go to the palace to clean the courtyard! Wang An, I have said it many times, if you have something to say, just say it, and you will not be punished for your words.

You watched me grow up, teaching me how to read and write step by step, and you tried your best to help me.I will always keep this friendship in my heart, and I hope you can remember it. As long as you don't betray me, I will take care of you until you die.

But I have many enemies now. Every time I do something or say a word, I need to think twice about the pros and cons.You are now helping Chen Ju in charge of the Supervisor of Ceremony and Dongchang. You are my eyes and ears, always reminding me that omissions are the right path. Hesitation and hesitation can easily lead to disaster. "

Since Wang An has no evil intentions and still chooses to stand on his side, Hong Tao is also willing to partially confess to him.But before we get down to business, we have to do it again.

I don’t want the people around me to live in fear all the time, and every expression and every word is filled with fear.In that case, you will become deaf and blind, unable to hear the truth and unable to understand the reality.

"This slave is so unworthy of Long Live the Lord and deserves death!" Or the ancients had always said that the emperor was a loner. Even a eunuch with a close relationship like Wang An was still frightened after hearing the emperor's true words.

"Your worries are exactly what I want to see. In fact, not only local officials will collude with the vassal king to lie about the disaster situation, falsely report the victims, defraud the disaster relief food and line their own pockets, the civil and military officials of the entire dynasty will not be idle. They only drink the blood of the people. He is an expert.

Especially officials from Nanjing, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Huguang, whose hometowns are all grain-producing areas. How could they not lend a helping hand when they meet a foolish emperor like me who is so hot-blooded?It doesn’t take much, just double the price of food, and half of the internal money will be theirs. "

"Ah...then, then..." This answer made Wang An instantly petrified. Not only did Emperor Hexiang know the shortcomings of the new disaster relief law, he also thought more clearly than himself.But why do you rush to do it when you know you will suffer big losses?

(End of this chapter)