Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 508: Practice Internal Strength Well
"Your Majesty, the examination for the fourth year of Tianqi has ended, and the examiners are busy marking the papers. Because this year's examination adopted a new marking standard, the examiners are not quite used to it. The chief examiner Zhang Yicheng requests an extension of the marking time."
“How long does it need to be extended?”
"Uh, Junyi means, half a month."
"Ah, Mr. Zhang, you are always full of love for talents. When he was in Fangshan, he treated the old students who had failed the exam for a long time with great care as the top scholar... However, although his desire to be cautious and not miss any talents is understandable, I can only give him five more days at most. You must know that this minor adjustment of the imperial examination has caused dissatisfaction among many candidates. If the marking time is too long, I am afraid that there will be more and more rumors."
"I understand. I will go to the examination room in person later to inform the examiners to work overtime and finish marking the papers as soon as possible."
The current Minister of Rites, the soft-spoken Wu Daonan, had just sat down after speaking about this, when he suddenly stood up again: "Your Majesty, I have something else to discuss with you."
"speak."
"Regarding the division of Luzon Island, Mindanao Island and its affiliated islands, the Ministry of Rites has already received transfer applications from 23 princes..."
"ah?"
As soon as Wu Daonan said this, all the ministers attending the meeting were slightly surprised.
The Ming Dynasty has been established for more than 200 years. Excluding the five princes who were conferred when the current emperor ascended the throne, there are still 28 princes. Among them, Zhou, Tang, Fu, and Gui have been conferred overseas. In this way, it means that, except for one of the remaining 24 princes, the others are willing to go to Luzon to be kings? Is that overseas wild land really that good?
If you think about it carefully, you can understand it: the land will be divided up anyway, and if you divide it up early, you can get a densely populated state. If you go out too late, you will really become the king of the barbarians.
Besides, don't you see that the four kings Zhou, Tang, Fu, and Gui are living comfortably now? They are the real kings! In addition to the power of diplomacy and national defense, they have all the other powers they should have. Although with great power comes great responsibility and a lot more things to do, it's better than being kept in a pen like a pig and waiting to die, right?
So, there are no real fools in this world. Some people may be a little slow to react, but now that everyone has seen it clearly, shouldn’t they fight for it desperately?
Except for the Shu king who had been designated to be enfeoffed in Myanmar, the other 23 princes all set their sights on Luzon this time: the geographical location is too good, and as long as it is properly developed, trade will surely flourish. Moreover, the current population is not small, and the key is that the Han people account for a high proportion of the permanent residents!
If they couldn't take Luzon, they could only go to Mindanao, which was obviously much worse. As for Java and Timor, which were recently taken by the Ming Dynasty, the princes were really not very interested.
This has led to the cabinet and the heads of various ministries being severely harassed by the princes in recent times. Even in Zhu Youdong's backyard, many people have come forward to speak up for his queen and concubine.
Unfortunately, the current emperor’s words are law, and if he doesn’t speak, other people have no idea which prince the emperor favors. So no one dares to accept the huge bribes from the princes: if they accept the money and fail to get things done, the emperor will not let them off easily once the news gets out!
Most of the ministers who were able to sit in the State Council had come from the Wanli era, and some had even experienced the Longqing era. They knew very well that the past ten years or so were the best ten years for the Ming Empire since the death of Zhang Juzheng. No, it was even better than when Zhang Taiyue was in power! Under the leadership of the emperor, this cabinet has taken in Korea, cut off Japan, torn apart Siam, established the Central and Southern Governor's Office, and shocked East Asia. Its momentum even exceeded that of the Chengzu period. Internally, various aspects of people's livelihood have been greatly improved, and many of the country's chronic diseases are gradually getting better or even cured.
With such a good situation, wouldn't it be good for everyone to maintain it peacefully until retirement and then leave their names in history? Why would you sacrifice your own and even your entire family's future for a prince?
Therefore, during this period, representatives of the princes ran around the capital, but the various bigwigs were unable to respond.
"Dong, dong, dong." After knocking on the table for a while, Zhu Youdong smiled and said, "Everyone is excited to go overseas to be a vassal, which is a good thing. But so many princes want to go to Luzon. Don't say it's difficult for you, it's difficult for me too. They are all relatives. If one is enthroned, the other 22 will ask why it's not him. So, I think it's better to summon these 23 princes to Beijing and hold a policy essay exam. Let them write what they plan to do if they go to Luzon to be king. Then the six ministers and the cabinet elders will grade the closed-book exam. The one with the highest score will go to Luzon to be king."
"Oh, Your Majesty, this is a good idea. Unfortunately, I will have retired by then, and will not be able to see the grand scene of the princes taking the exam."
"Hahaha, Grand Master, what else do you want? You've been the Minister of Rites for eleven years. Since Taizu founded the Ming Dynasty, which Grand Master has served as such for so long?"
"Humph, isn't it the same for the Grand Marshal? He has been the Minister of War for eleven years, which is unprecedented!"
"Alas, I have been in the political arena for decades, but these ten years have been the most enjoyable. In these ten years, I have accomplished so much! The military yellow book has been cleaned up, and the livelihood issues of the garrison soldiers and the garrison soldiers have been solved... I have no regrets at all."
Regarding the issue of cabinet change, Zhu Youdong had already communicated with the ministers. Although most people are reluctant to give up their official positions, the ministers knew that although it was pleasant to work under the leadership of the emperor, they had been in office for too long. If they did not want suspicion or even fratricide between the emperor and his ministers, it would be better for them not to cling to their posts at this time.
In short, this was the last State Council meeting held by the current cabinet since Zhu Youdong took over as regent and set up the team.
"My dear ministers, we have worked together for more than ten years and have accomplished a lot. You are reluctant to leave, and so am I. But as the saying goes, a door hinge does not rot, and running water does not rot. The court is a place where people come and go, so adjustments are necessary. Of course, in order to express gratitude for the outstanding work results of this cabinet, and also considering that this cabinet has done too many things in the past eleven years and offended many people. Therefore, I have decided that after this cabinet adjustment, anyone who retires completely will be given 10,000 silver dollars per year as a pension, and at the same time, a general flag will be dispatched from the Imperial Horse Administration to provide close protection for them."
"We thank the emperor for his kindness."
…
At the end of February 1622, the Ming Dynasty completed the adjustment of the new cabinet ministers. After the reorganization, the new ministers were:
Cabinet: First Assistant, Wen Tiren; Second Assistant, Yuan Keli; Third Assistant, Li Dai.
Minister of Personnel: Sun Chengzong.
Minister of Revenue: Wang Shaozheng (Governor of Yingtian when Zhu Youdong was stationed in Nanjing. After Zhu Youdong returned to Beijing, he was appointed Governor of Shuntian. He was a eunuch party member in this historical dimension).
Minister of Rites: Zhang Yicheng.
Minister of War: Yang Hao (the functions of the Ministry of War have been greatly weakened).
Minister of Justice: Xiong Tingbi.
Minister of Works: Xu Guangqi.
Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate: Zhao Yan.
Governor of Shuntian: Gu Bingqian.
Governor of Yingtian: Li Biao.
Governor of Guangdong: Cheng Jiming.
Governor of Fujian: Sun Chuanting.
Governor of Yunnan: Hong Chengchou.
Governor-General of Central and Southern China: Chen Shiji...
Along with the list of adjustments to cabinet ministers and some local officials, a new decision on the reform of the imperial examination system was also announced.
The court decided that the imperial examination system would not be changed in the next two joint examinations after this minor adjustment. Nine years later, starting from the 13th year of the Tianqi reign, the joint examination would undergo a major change: poetry and songs would be combined with classics, accounting for 10% of the score in the imperial examination. Policy essays would account for 50%. In addition, a new administrative professional ability test would be added, accounting for 40%. Since the joint examination would change nine years later, all prefectural and provincial examinations in various places starting from the 12th year of the Tianqi reign would change before the joint examination.
In other words, if the scholars of the Ming Dynasty had not succeeded in becoming officials in the next seven or eight years, then if they wanted to continue to be officials, they would either have to adapt to the new examination system or try their luck with the vassal kings overseas.
Of course, Zhu Youdong knew that although scholars could not rebel, as a whole, it was better not to provoke them too much. Therefore, along with this notice , there was also the general scope of the civil service examination, and free books related to improving civil service examination scores were given to students studying in official schools in various places.
Along with this imperial examination reform plan, there are also various important documents such as the outline of national railway construction and the requirements for a new round of yellow book inspection. There is no doubt that after completely stabilizing the entire Greater East Asia, Zhu Youdong's pace of internal reform has begun to accelerate: in the next ten to twenty years, he will practice internal skills!
