I

  Chapter 657 654 [Four Dissimilar Township Examinations]

  Among the highly anticipated, this year's rural examination was finally held.

   Zhao Han resumed the imperial examination, which is directly the provincial examination, without the county examination or road examination for scholars.

   Moreover, traditional and new go hand in hand.

  Middle school graduates in all provinces, who have not been admitted to university, can take the provincial examination. The local government does not provide travel expenses, and all imperial examination fees are borne by themselves.

  Scholars from the former dynasty, as long as they can produce a scholar certificate, they can participate in the provincial examination and imperial examination, and all expenses are also at their own expense. However, the age must be under 30 years old!

  Those who have passed the examination can start as a ninth-rank official, but they need to observe politics (internship) for one year first.

   Those who rank among the best in each province can choose not to be a ninth-rank official, but to take part in the general examination in Nanjing next spring. The number of places for the general examination in each province is not strictly determined according to the proportion of the population, and the number of new-style students must be several times that of traditional scholars.

  Taking the most populous province of Sichuan as an example, there are 60 places for new-style students and 15 places for traditional scholars.

In the three provinces of Jiangxi, Guangdong, and Hunan, the number of traditional scholars was suppressed to only 5 people—Zhao Han intentionally, these three provinces were the first to win, and the scholars have not been officials until now, which shows that they are unwilling to be petty officials and endure hardships of.

   Even, even the papers that come out are different.

  The traditional imperial examinations for scholars still use the old one. But reduce the weight of stereotyped essays and increase the scores of official documents and policy theories. The new mathematics, physics, astronomy, geography, and Datong theory are all taken as additional questions, and the scores of the additional questions are doubled.

  The new-style imperial examination for students is actually the provincial unified examination. The best ones will enter the university for further studies at public expense. If the family is not short of money, they can go to college at their own expense. Those who don't want to go to university should go to the provincial examination, and they will be directly assigned a ninth-rank official position.

  Eight ranks and ninth ranks belonged to the low-ranking officials in the Ming Dynasty, and would be despised by serious Jinshi. But in Zhao Han's place, only middle-level Jinshi can release the eighth rank.

  In addition, university graduates can directly participate in the general examination.

  University graduates who pass the Jinshi examination must either go to the Hanlin Academy or Qintian Academy to do research, or enter the cabinet to observe politics and become a member of Zhongshushe.

  In three years, after the Shusheren finished, they still had to release Zhengbapin (Xian Cheng). But this kind of eighth-rank, the promotion speed is faster, because they know the emperor and the cabinet ministers, even if they are not familiar with each other, they must have met face to face!

   This set of four different imperial examination systems is a product of the transitional period.

   Civilian scholars complained a lot, and it was time to open the door of the imperial examination for them. When the new education is popularized in all provinces and the old scholars are getting old, the traditional imperial examinations will be completely closed.

  In addition, the proportion of officials in the south is too large, and the recovery of the north was late, and there are not even middle school graduates.

  In order to balance the official circles of the North and the South, it is also necessary to leave a way for the traditional scholars. Moreover, this is the most important thing, otherwise Zhao Han would ignore the complaints of poor literati.

   There is another factor in the rush to resume the imperial examination and the rural examination, that is, there is a problem with the current official selection system.

  According to the report of the Inspector of Integrity, a large number of cronyism, favoritism and fraud have occurred among middle and low-level officials across the country. Even in the past two years, Zhao Han imposed qualification restrictions on the admission of officials, but it still did not completely change the status quo.

  …

  Hebei, Tianjin.

  Li Jixiu is already twenty-nine years old. Historically, he took part in the Imperial Examination of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and was the third Jinshi in the second class in the fourth year of Shunzhi.

   But in this time and space, he is not even a Juren. The war years were really unbearable. His family fled to Yanshan and ate sweet potatoes for several years. It was not until last year that he took his family out of the mountains and returned to Yutian County to register for household registration.

  For the new emperor, Li Jixiu has no resentment.

  Although the land property accumulated for several generations was gone, when he returned to his hometown and settled down, the government returned his ancestral house. His family's oil mill in the town had been sold to a small businessman who moved from other places. After he showed the certificate, the government generously compensated part of the silver.

   Moreover, according to the population of his family, the land was allocated to them.

   Li Jixiu thinks it is commendable to be able to do this. This new dynasty of Datong is really convincing.

  Actually, for the sake of political achievements, local officials wish that the population would be as large as possible. That's why there are various policies. In addition to land, as long as the certificate can be produced, it will be returned if it can be returned, and compensation will be made if it cannot be returned. Only in this way can the people who entered the mountain be attracted to come down the mountain and return to their original place of residence.

  In the northern provinces that are waiting to be rebuilt, population growth is the biggest achievement!

   On the day of the township examination, Li Jixiu got up in the middle of the night and arrived outside the Gongyuan in the southeast of the city early.

   There were not many people, because the rules changed, the emperor did not allow candidates to toss in the middle of the night, and all the procedures of the imperial examination were postponed for three hours.

   "What is the name of this brother?" A traditional scholar asked.

  Li Jixiu said: "The surname of Wansheng is Li, his first name is Jixiu, and his style name is Gongyu."

  The scholar said: "The last name is Zhang, and the name is Zhaoyong. It's a coincidence. It's also named Gongyu."

  The two have the same character, this is fate, and they get closer immediately, and they start to sequence the year of their respective talents.

  Li Jixiu said: "It seems that not many scholars participated in the Hebei provincial examination."

Zhang Zhaoyong sighed: "How can there be more? When the Tartars returned to Liaodong, they took away many gentry and civilians, and there are not many people left in Hebei. There may be many scholars, but the war is chaotic, how many of them can still produce certificates? What's more, there is an age limit, and you will not be allowed to take the exam if you are over 30 years old."

   "That's true," Li Jixiu gritted his teeth, "Damn the Tartars! If the Holy Son of Heaven hadn't been born, my whole family would still be hiding in the mountains."

Zhang Zhaoyong said with emotion: "For you and me, the rural examination is actually good. In the elementary school in Hebei, the students have not yet graduated, and the middle school has not yet opened. There are no new-style scholars who participated in the rural examination this year. The number of papers is small, as long as you take the exam, you are almost sure to pass!"

  Li Jixiu nodded and said, "That's exactly the reason."

Zhang Zhaoyong suddenly laughed: "All provinces have announced the quotas for the provincial examinations. In Jiangxi, Hunan, and Guangdong provinces, only five scholars were admitted in the previous courts. Especially in Jiangxi, there are countless scholars among the people. I am afraid that the imperial examinations will be overwhelmed this time. And the county magistrate also has a headache, His Majesty does not conduct a subject examination (the provincial examination qualification selection examination), the county magistrates must first organize examinations for selection."

  Li Jixiu actually guessed what Zhao Han was thinking: "It's just like the northern and southern rankings. There are too many officials in the south. Your majesty is already dissatisfied with this. He wants to overwhelm the south in the imperial examination."

  The two chatted until dawn, when the Gongyuan finally let out the cannon and began to check their identities to enter the examination room.

  In the entire Hebei Province, the number of places for admission in the township examination is 30, but only 114 scholars participated in the examination. Not a single new student.

  The test sheds have all been renovated, and they are all brick and tile structures. You don’t need to nail tarpaulins yourself, and there are even glass windows for light transmission.

  Li Jixiu was speechless when he got the exam questions.

  There is only one traditional four-book title. There is only one question in the traditional Pentateuch. The next step is to test official documents, policy theory, criminal proceedings and so on.

   There are also nonsense additional questions. Li Jixiu has only studied "The Theory of Datong" by himself, and the rest of astronomy, geography, mathematics, physics, water conservancy...all are blind.

  Li Jixiu didn't finish the two stereotyped essays in the Four Books and Five Classics until the afternoon. There is not much time left, so he can only speed up and answer the questions he knows quickly.

  The booklet "The Collection of Datong" is not thick, Li Jixiu finished memorizing it by self-study, and he answered the answers very easily at this time.

   Then astronomy: try to write the five planets.

  Li Jixiu knows the twenty-eight constellations and the Big Dipper, but what the **** are the five planets?

  The topic that the third-grade elementary school students in the south know, stumped Li Jixiu, who has read the classics of sages. Fortunately, Li Jixiu's original scripture is "Shangshu", and he can make divergent associations.

  In Chinese culture, the number five is easily connected with the five elements.

  "Shangshu · Shun Dian" has seven states, and the seven states are the sun, the moon, and the five planets.

  Li Jixiu worked hard and wrote the answer: five stars, wood, fire, earth, gold and water. Wood is called Sui Xing, Fire is called Ying Huo, Earth is called Zhen Xing, Jin is called Taibai, and water is called Chen Xing.

  Geography question: May I ask whether the Netherlands or the Ottoman country is closer or farther from China? (Full points will be awarded for the detailed description of the two countries, and half points will be awarded for the correct answer)

  Li Jixiu scratched his head and scratched his head. This question can only be guessed.

  Holland sounds refreshing, but Osman is a bit of a mouthful. So Li Jixiu replied: Holland is near, but Ottoman is far away.

  Math problems are roughly similar to chickens and rabbits in the same cage. Using traditional arithmetic methods, you can only get half of the points if you get it right. You must use new mathematics to get full marks.

  Li Jixiu tore up the draft paper to do calculations, and quickly came up with the correct answer, but he was destined to only get half a point.

  Physics questions are about mechanics.

   Li Jixiu stared at the question for a long time, but he didn't understand the question, and the question didn't recognize him.

  When night falls, give a candle, and the paper must be handed in when the candle is exhausted.

  Li Jixiu handed in the paper, a little frustrated, he found that he didn't understand a lot of knowledge, and he had never even heard of it. This kind of ignorance is more shocking than failing the imperial examination.

  After returning home, you must study the textbooks of the new classroom by yourself!

   "Brother Jixiu, how did you do in the exam?" Zhang Zhaoyong asked.

  Li Jixiu shook his head again and again: "Astronomical questions can probably be guessed, and geography questions are all based on Mongolian. The math questions give the answer, but they can only get half a mark. As for physics, what about mechanics, my brain is dizzy."

  Zhang Zhaoyong smiled wryly and said, "It's the same with me."

   A few days later, the list was released outside the Tribute Court.

  Li Jixiu checked from the back, but couldn't find his name, and then he scanned to the first place.

   This guy managed to pass the exam of Xie Yuan in Hebei Province.

   Zhang Zhaoyong was crying and laughing next to him: "I won, I won, the tenth place, just right to go to the national exam!"

  Hebei Province has a quota of 30 candidates for the provincial examination, and they only need to observe politics for one year before they can become ninth-rank officials. However, only the top ten can give up the ninth-rank qualification and go to Nanjing to participate in the general examination next year.

  Li Jixiu cupped his hands and said, "Congratulations, congratulations!"

   "Congratulations, congratulations!" Zhang Zhaoyong laughed.

  Li Jixiu said: "We will go to Nanjing next year."

  Zhang Zhaoyong said: "My brother Yu lives in Tianjin. Although he has survived the war, he has kept a few shops. It is still a bit of a waste of money. It is not as good as brother Xiu. I will stay at my brother's house to study. When the time comes, we will go south to Beijing for an exam."

  Li Jixiu said: "Brother Zhaoyong's kindness, I accept it with all my heart. But there are parents, wife and children at home, so I have to go back to work in the fields. The sweet potatoes and corn planted after the wheat harvest have to be harvested and stored in the warehouse."

  Zhang Zhaoyong sighed: "I didn't expect Brother Xiu to go down to farm in person."

Li Jixiu sighed: "It's not easy to survive by hiding in the mountains. After returning to the hometown, the government divided the land and compensated for the loss of the shop. It has done the best. Hebei has a vast land and a sparse population. I can only farm by myself, so where can I get tenants? It’s been ten years of cold weather and I’m not working hard, so the crops are really not good, and the harvest is much less than that of the farmers in the village.”

   Zhang Zhaoyong thought it was not easy, so he said: "I am afraid that there will be astronomy, geography, mathematics, and physics in the general examination. I can't give it to you. I will buy a new set of textbooks for you."

   "So, thank you very much!" Li Jixiu did not refuse, this is exactly what he needed urgently.

   There is a group explosion, please don’t post sensitive remarks, new group number: 982152091.

  (end of this chapter)