Chapter 70: Change the ancestral system!
"Your Highness, I, Niu Hong, pay my respects to you!"
Xiao Yan nodded and said, "Okay, sit down."
"Thank you, Your Highness, for the seat!"
"Your Highness, the memorial I submitted to you just now was rejected by you. I would like to ask why."
"Eunuch Sande didn't tell me why."
As he spoke, Niu Hong handed the memorial to Xiao Yan again.
Xiao Yan took the memorial and threw it on the table without even looking at it.
"No need to look, I called you here this time just for this matter."
"First, tell me about the current official selection system of our Great Zhou."
Niu Hong was puzzled, but still replied: "Your Highness, the official selection system of our Great Zhou is the recommendation system."
"Only those who are recommended by officials of the fifth rank or above in the court are eligible for appointment. During the appointment period, they will be tested. If their talents are not up to the task, they will be returned."
"Strictly speaking, it is still quite cautious."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Yan said, "Have you ever considered the fairness of this official selection system ?"
Niu Hong frowned upon hearing this and said, "Fair? What's fair?"
When Xiao Yan saw Niu Hong's expression, he became furious.
"Don't you even know what fairness is?"
Niu Hong knelt down quickly and said, "Of course I know, but I don't know what Your Highness means."
Seeing Niu Hong's frightened look, Xiao Yan became even more angry. As an official of the Great Zhou, he was actually so timid.
"The recommendation system has its drawbacks. Let me ask you, how can ordinary people become officials?"
When Niu Hong heard the question, he was stunned. There had never been a commoner serving as an official in the history of the Great Zhou Dynasty.
"Your Highness, this... you are putting me in a difficult position. Since the founding of our Great Zhou Dynasty, apart from those ancestors who made great contributions to the founding of the country, there have been no more commoners."
"They were all recommended by officials of the fifth rank and above, and this has been used till now."
"Now it is time to select officials, so I am sending you the officials nominated by various places for your review."
This time, Xiao Yan finally understood that there was no fairness at all. Only bureaucrats could become officials if they recommended each other.
This greatly blocked the path for common people to become officials, so many talented people among the people could not be employed.
"Change, this system must be changed!"
Hearing this, Niu Hong was shocked.
"Your Highness, this is not possible. The ancestral system cannot be changed. This goes against the will of heaven!"
Xiao Yan raised his head and glanced at Niu Hong: "Heaven's way? Bullshit Heaven's way, the current official selection system has too many flaws."
"Many talented people in the society are excluded because of this system."
"If the people cannot find a way to participate in government affairs, have you ever thought about the consequences?"
"It's good if the world is peaceful. If it's not peaceful, it will push our Great Zhou into the abyss at any time."
Niu Hong, however, strongly opposed it.
"Your Highness, the ancestral system is the ancestral system. No matter what you say, it cannot be changed. If you insist on doing so, then I can only report it to His Majesty!"
Xiao Yan threw the memorial in his hand to Niu Hong: "Take it and go to the emperor now. See if the emperor will pay attention to you!"
"I don't want you to alarm my father about this matter. I will go and tell him myself."
"As for the result, we will discuss it in the court tomorrow!"
"Go ahead!"
Xiao Yan's words almost choked Niu Hong. "You go to see the emperor yourself, why should I go?"
"Yes, I'll take my leave!"
After Niu Hong left, Sande asked in confusion: "Your Highness, I still don't understand what you mean."
"Are you planning to recruit civilians to serve as officials?"
Xiao Yan smiled when he heard this: "That's right, this recommendation system has too many flaws. To put it bluntly, officials will definitely not recommend a commoner to serve in the court."
"So what should the common people do if they want to be officials? There is only one way, rebel!"
"So I said that nothing would happen in a peaceful year, but if it were a year of great disaster, you would see that people would rise up everywhere."
"At that time, my Great Zhou will be in danger."
Sande understood something vaguely, but still didn't understand much.
"I still don't understand something."
Xiao Yan was too lazy to explain.
"Okay, if you don't understand, just keep it in your confusion. One day you will understand!"
"I want to go to the palace, you go and arrange the carriage!"
Xiao Yan knew that this matter would be impossible to achieve without the emperor's permission, so he had to tell the old emperor about this matter before the court.
The emperor's bedroom.
"Father, is the dragon feeling better today?"
The old emperor waved his hands, sat up and said, "It's nothing serious, just take your time to recover. If you hadn't come, I would have sent someone to call you!"
Xiao Yan was a little confused. Normally, no one would easily tell him about anything important, but he didn't know what happened today.
"Oh? What does your Majesty want to talk to me about?"
The old emperor looked at Xiao Yan in front of him. He was more satisfied with his maturity instead of his previous immaturity and mischief.
"Today, Prime Minister Hu Zhenghe brought a group of officials to me to impeach you."
Hearing this, the old emperor thought Xiao Yan would be angry and furious, but Xiao Yan looked calm.
“I can think of it.”
"They just lost their power in the court. Does that mean that I am arbitrary and dictatorial?"
"Or maybe it's something like a son and a minister protecting him."
The old emperor didn't expect that Xiao Yan would be so calm in the face of such a thing.
"Aren't you angry?"
Xiao Yan laughed.
"Father, there are only a few days in this life. If you get angry every day, won't you be the one who suffers?"
"Let them talk. It won't have any impact on me. Besides, I have done nothing wrong. I have carefully considered every decision I make."
"Hu Zhenghe has been in control of government for many years. Everything used to go his way. Now he is just not getting the same treatment he had before, and he feels unbalanced."
"Of course, you and I both know what he is thinking. We cannot keep him alive, but we cannot kill him now either. That is why I will let him run around for a few more days."
"But after all, it is just a grasshopper in autumn, it won't be able to jump for many more days."
The old emperor didn't expect that Xiao Yan was so insightful.
"Please understand what you are thinking. I was planning to comfort you, but now I think I was worrying too much."
"I hired Hu Zhenghe because of his talent, but in the end I discovered that he had huge ambitions."
"It's too late to get rid of it, so now I'm being held hostage by it everywhere."
"But how do you explain your saying that he is a grasshopper in autumn?"
Xiao Yan knelt on the ground and said, "Father, please accept my respect first!"
"Father may think that I am disrespectful to our ancestors if I say this, so I apologize first!"
This operation made the old emperor very confused.
"Yan'er, what's wrong with you? What exactly do you want to do?"
"Why don't you tell me first? Your kneeling makes father feel uneasy!"
Xiao Yan did not expect that he would scare the old emperor.
"Father, I want to change the ancestral system!"
"So as long as I have the military power, I can get rid of Hu Zhenghe!"
