Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 600: Ming Prepares to Attack
After going through a tedious inspection procedure, Tokugawa Yoshinobu was finally able to enter the examination room and then found his own room.
He keenly noticed that there were several candidates with dark skin and severely flat facial features who entered the examination room in front and behind him. They looked like natives of the Nanyang countries.
These natives also saw Tokugawa Yoshinobu with his uneven hair. They smiled at each other, didn't say much, and went into their own rooms.
He looked at the big clock in the center of the examination room. It was only five in the morning. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes to rest.
At 7 o'clock in the morning, after a bell rang, the staff of the examination room began to distribute breakfast to the candidates: this time the civil service examination lasted for a day and a half. During this day and a half, the candidates' food and other things were all provided by the examination room.
In the past, the imperial examinations would not be conducted in this way: first, the country had no money, and second, if food was distributed uniformly, who would be held responsible if someone got sick from eating too much?
But for Zhu Youdong, these are not a problem: for a central government with an annual income of hundreds of millions, this amount of food money is not a problem. As for food safety: if there is a large-scale food poisoning of candidates, the officials in charge will naturally have to take responsibility. But for individual sporadic cases, I am sorry: with such poor health, why be a civil servant?
Of course, due to the limitations of technology at this time, it is still too difficult to verify the identity of the candidates. Therefore, once the candidates enter the examination room, they are still not allowed to leave until the end of the exam.
At eight in the morning, the bell rang again. The staff of the examination room collected the dishes and handed out the examination papers. At half past eight on that day, dozens of staff members dressed in red, each holding a wooden sign, walked back and forth in the examination room.
"Hmm? A seven-character poem expressing one's aspirations. A piece of Han fu about the summer scenery? Oh! I'm very familiar with Han fu."
Japan and Korea are different. The former was greatly influenced by the Tang Dynasty, while the latter was more influenced by the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the closer the test questions on poetry and songs are to the previous dynasty, the greater the advantage the Japanese naturally have.
After leisurely going through several sample essays he had prepared in his mind, he quickly selected an essay and began to write it down on a piece of draft paper...
The poetry exam in the morning was very easy. It started at 8:30 and was closed at 11:00. Then it was lunch time. At 12:00, the staff took away the bowls and chopsticks and told everyone: As long as you don't leave the exam room, you can walk around the courtyard in the middle of the exam room to digest your food, or you can take a nap in your cell.
When hearing this notice, foreigners like Tokugawa Yoshinobu did not feel it was too abrupt, but the Ming Dynasty scholars who took the reference, especially those who had participated in the imperial examinations in the past, all widened their eyes.
However, after staring with eyes wide open, everyone still walked out of the cell happily: God has mercy on us, the cell is so small that we can't even stretch our legs straight when sleeping. Besides, we ate so much in the morning and didn't move much, and then ate so much at noon, if we don't go out for a walk, we really won't be able to eat at night.
Gradually, more and more people gathered in the central courtyard of the examination hall: although there were still some raindrops from the sky, for the examinees, it was okay to be out for a walk and get a little wet - besides, what was this amount of rain? In the words of us scholars, this is the fun of rain without the pain of being drenched!
Tokugawa Yoshinori also walked out of his room, stretched his body, and nodded to several dark-skinned candidates next to him: That's it, at least for now, he hasn't found any other Japanese candidates besides himself. Although those who can take this exam, no matter what ethnicity they are from, can definitely speak Chinese, but it's better to speak less with the Japanese accent.
He just strolled slowly, nodding and greeting other scholars when he met them. Gradually, he found that more and more scholars began to gather in one place.
When he walked over, he found that everyone was surrounding one person and complimenting him non-stop.
After standing by and listening for a while, he finally figured it out: it turned out that the man who was surrounded and complimented by everyone was called Wu Jungong, the top poet in the Ming Dynasty.
After listening carefully for a while, he suddenly felt anxious: Wu Jungong's seven-character regulated verse actually had sixty lines and more than four hundred words. Then he recalled his own regulated verse? It was just four lines and twenty-eight words. Oh, why was he so stupid? It was said to be a seven-character regulated verse, but there was no limit on the length! Oh!
No! I can't listen to it anymore. If I continue to listen, I won't be able to take the exam this afternoon. Hey, it's not good or bad to allow candidates to hang out and chat between each exam. People like me who once commanded hundreds of thousands of troops are now affected by their state of mind. How would those scholars who only read the books of sages feel if they found that their poems were far inferior to others?
In short, just as he thought: after all, he was a person who once stood at the pinnacle of a country, so he quickly adjusted his mood and faced the afternoon's civil service exam in a normal state.
After the civil service exam, he went out to digest his food after dinner. He then keenly discovered that although the rain had stopped completely, the number of candidates who came out for a walk had decreased by at least half compared to noon. Even Mr. Wu Jun was hiding in his cell and did not come out: Haha, it seems that the civil service exam has confused many people.
After a night of silence, the next morning, the essay was ready. After receiving the topic , Tokugawa Yorinobu was pleasantly surprised to find that he had guessed the topic correctly: Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the official systems of the Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang dynasties.
After writing the composition fluently, he left the examination room in high spirits.
"My Lord, you are out? How did you do in the exam?"
"It's OK. Except for the bad poetry, the next two classes were pretty good."
"Huh~" The accompanying retainers all breathed a sigh of relief: "Congratulations, lord. I wish you success in the imperial examination!"
"Hi, thank you all for coming with me."
…
"Your Majesty, here comes the report from Grand Chancellor Sun of the Ministry of Personnel regarding this civil service examination."
"Well, let's pick the main ones."
"Yes. Your Majesty, there are 98,320 candidates taking the national civil service exam this time. Based on 10 points for poetry, 40 points for practical test, and 50 points for essay, only 3,625 candidates scored above 60 points. There are more than 453,000 candidates taking the local exam, and only 20,700 candidates scored above 60 points. The Grand Chancellor asks if we must recruit 10,000 national civil servants and 100,000 local civil servants this year? If we must recruit all of them, then we have to lower the admission score."
"...Ah." After a long sigh, Zhu Youdong shook his head gently: "It's better to have nothing than to have something less than perfect."
"Yes, I will obey your order and report back to the Grand Chancellor later."
Regardless of whether or not these 500,000 or 600,000 candidates passed the preliminary examination, they were considered the intellectual class of the Ming Dynasty, right? But now the Ming Dynasty has 180 million people, and the surrounding vassal states have at least 230 million people. How could there be only so few candidates?
Well, this matter cannot be rushed, let's take our time. Moreover, if the civil servants cannot be recruited, some clerks and runners will be retained. In this way, the clerks and runners will not form a joint force and will not cause too much turmoil to the country.
"Square."
"The servant is here."
"There are some unpleasant sounds in this exam."
"Both the Imperial Guard and the Eastern Depot have received news. There are roughly the following: First, the candidates were allowed to walk around and communicate during the exam, which caused some candidates to be in an unstable mood. Second, the unified food supply made some candidates feel uncomfortable or violated their religious beliefs. Third, the proportion of poetry was too small. Fourth, the questions in the preliminary exam were too difficult, resulting in many people being unable to enter the main exam. In particular, many former students reported that many juren and xiucai were eliminated in the preliminary exam, while some clerks and even foreigners entered the main exam. Uh, they said that the emperor did not sympathize with scholars..."
"Tsk~!" Zhu Youdong stood up and said, "I said, you remember it, and then let Zhang Shize send it out."
"Your Majesty, please give your instructions."
"First, the examinees are all adults. How can they be officials if they are fooled by others and their mood becomes bad? In the past, the imperial examinations only looked at the essays. I want to see the examinees ' moods through the exchanges in the examination room. Officials have to go through countless hardships while in office. If they can't stand the test in this examination room, they won't be able to hold on to their position as officials.
Second, our Great Ming now has a vast territory, and the customs of different places are very different. If you become a civil servant of our Great Ming, you may be sent to a foreign land to serve as an official. You can't even tolerate the slightest unfamiliarity with food and drink. Such a person will definitely not be able to integrate with the local people when he becomes an official.
Third, the world is now a time of great contention, and what I need are officials who are responsible and can get things done. What good is it to pick out sentences and quotes?
Fourth, since some people look down on people of different races, why can they pass the exams while they can't? Everyone has their own specialties. Some people are not born suitable for exams, but that doesn't prevent them from making achievements in other industries. But if they fail one day, instead of looking for the reasons from themselves, they blame others, haha, then they are hopeless.
Have you written them all down?"
"Yes, I have noted it down."
"Well, go and do your work. "
"Yes, I'll take my leave."
After Fang Zhenghua retreated, Zhu Youdong walked out of the Huangji Hall and looked up at the sky: It has been thirty-one years. It has been twenty-seven years since he was enlightened and had his own power and started to do things.
Over the years, the military, economy, and technology of the Ming Dynasty have all made great progress. Political reforms are also progressing steadily. According to the Western intelligence learned in recent years, except for the fact that the Ming Dynasty's technology tree is limited by its own expertise, which may cause the growth rate of the Ming Dynasty's technology tree to be slightly slower, in other aspects, the Ming Dynasty has surpassed Spain and the Ottoman Empire.
Well, now this country has gradually prepared for a long-term global war. After accumulating strength for another three to five years, when I have thoroughly implemented various reforms and the new state machinery is running smoothly, I will take the initiative to attack!
The first target is India!
