On the first day of the seventh month, the imperial court released Jin Youzi, a scholar and secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Xiong Wenyuan, a waiter of the Ministry of Rites, as vice presidents, and Lu Zhen, a waiter of the Ministry of Rites, as four other examiners.

At the same time, the imperial court began to negotiate the establishment of a quota for scholars, which was a major matter involving the fundamental interests of scholars in the world, and the parties had been arguing for several years.

This matter has to start from the era of Zhu Yuanzhang, after the founding of the country, all kinds of waste to be rebuilt, the shortage of officials is huge, so since the fourth year of Hongwu, the provinces have held township examinations for three consecutive years, and then these people are exempted from the examination, and go directly to Beijing to wait for the selection of officials.

Xu Hao's uncles are the officials of this collective, Xiaojia Village is located at the foot of the imperial capital and does not occupy the quota of the national eunuch, the advantage is too great, but the blessing and misfortune depend on it, and the tragedy of Zhulian is planted.

In addition to directly appointing a large number of local officials who did not pass the examination, the imperial court also needed a large number of civil officials such as Hanlin editors.

But Zhu Yuanzhang soon discovered that these young posterity, the article may be written in the first place, but they lack the experience and ability of practical work, and they are also young and high-position, they are easy to be complacent and proud, indulge in the flowers and drinks in the capital, and do not want to forge ahead.

In fact, this is not a problem, the problem is that Zhu Yuanzhang can't tolerate it, and he doesn't give him a chance to improve, Hongwu issued an order to stop the imperial examination in the sixth year, and the ancient idea of selecting and appointing talents advocated by Fang Xiaoru is the same, so that people all over the world can recommend smart, upright, and capable people to be officials.

However, the effect of the recommendation is no better than that of the imperial examination, and the facts have proved that the imperial examination system is the most scientific and perfect system for selecting officials in a unified country. Since the abolition of the imperial examinations, the maximum number of people who need to be conferred official positions recommended by the Ministry of Officials has reached more than 3,700 people in most cases, and more than 1,900 people in rare cases.

What is especially unbearable for Zhu Yuanzhang is that the recommended talents are not more capable than those who have been admitted to the imperial examination, on the contrary, the comprehensive essence is far inferior. After such a comparison, Zhu Yuanzhang realized that the imperial examination system does have its incomparable superiority, and the crystallization of the wisdom of his predecessors is by no means in vain.

So the imperial examination was restored, but this is already the fifteenth year of Hongwu, that is to say, the recommendation system has been implemented for nearly ten years, a large number of good and bad officials at all levels of government are flooded, and all kinds of corruption cases and vicious incidents of collective inaction have emerged endlessly, igniting Zhu Yuanzhang's anger, and the three major cases of Tongguò have begun to kill and kill.

Since then. The recommendation system and the imperial examination system, which are used in both ways, are gradually inclined towards the imperial examination. In the two years that Zhu Gaochi was critically ill, the recommendation had almost been abolished.

During the Hongwu period, due to the sudden rise and fall of the number of officials, there was not much restriction on the number of places to take the examination, and the number of vacancies was reduced if there was a small number, and the number of vacancies was expanded when the number of vacancies was large, which was very flexible. This is irreplaceable as a Chinese sub-supervisor, serving as a firefighting captain. There are numerous examples of inmates serving directly as central and local officials.

After the Hongxi Dynasty, the situation was stable, and the imperial examination system also entered the normalization, so the status of the Guozijian deteriorated. And the status of Jinshi is increasing day by day. Xu Hao pushed for an increase in the number of examinations for the imperial examination and a reduction in the weight of the Baguwen, although he once wanted to abolish the imperial examination completely, but it was because he was influenced by the views of later generations. And after so many years of actual discovery, there is no system that can replace the imperial examination, and the national studies represented by the Four Books and Five Classics are useless? No!

Mrs. Ping Ping twenty years down. The number of officials is gradually crumbling, and there must be a limit to the number of places, which is the general consensus of the officials, otherwise a large number of officials waiting to be elected will be empty and full of complaints.

When the Hongxi Dynasty came to the time when there was rather a shortage than an abundance, the proportion of scholars in the large provinces with equality in the north and south of the Yangtze River was much higher than that in the remote provinces.

To put it bluntly, it is the unfair distribution of resources.

Now this piece of pie affects the whole world, not only the provinces, but also Korea, Annam, and the subject countries of the Wa Kingdom, as well as the colonies of Yongle Continent and Hanwangzhou, and even the Arab world and European countries are extremely concerned and want to win satisfactory places.

Of course, this matter has nothing to do with Xu Hao, what he cares about is Enke this year, Enzhao is a special situation, and he can't meet it once in ten or twenty years, and it is not a "constant system".

The common people are most familiar with the practice of holding two imperial examinations in three consecutive years whenever the old emperor dies and the new emperor ascends the throne, and a large number of sons and nephews in the clan are already eager to try, including the second son Xu Yu also wants to participate.

Early in the morning, Xu Hao and his wife watched their son eat, and couldn't help but instruct: "The first scene is the most important, four books and three discussions, and four scriptures and righteousness, we must play well and get off to a good start." ”

"I see." Xu Yu finished the last bite of food and raised his head, "Dad, Lu Shilang asked the court to be an official again, and Lu Xiong was proud in front of us all day long, very annoying, can he be an official this time?" ”

Xu Hao said with a smile: "My son can't be an official this year, why should his son be an official?" No way! ”

"Nonsense again." Mu Ningxue said: "How old is Yu'er this year? This year is to try his guts, Lu Shilang's eldest son is in his twenties. ”

"What's wrong with that?" Xu Hao said disdainfully: "He always takes the example of rewarding official positions from the descendants of Wuxun, if it weren't for the fact that I didn't want to offend everyone, I really wanted to take the lead in abolishing this move." Yu'er, you fight for your father, if you don't take the Jinshi exam, we won't be officials. ”

"Hmm." Xu Yu nodded, and asked again: "Then can Lu Xiong be an official?" ”

Xu Hao smiled bitterly: "Ministers with a little face will wait for rewards from the imperial court, but they can't stand the cheekiness of Lu Zhen and others, and they ask for it every year, and they have begged for four or five years, right?" Probably this year. ”

"That's not possible, why?" Xu Yu looked very angry, "Lu Xiong has no real talent and learning, he will only talk about it, if he wants to be an official, his classmates will not be convinced, and someone will definitely scold the court for being unfair." ”

Xu Hao smiled: "There are fewer unfair things? This is the reality, didn't you go through the back door and become a prisoner? Don't say it, go back to the room and clean up the tribute courtyard, your father won't accompany you, and you don't have any pressure. ”

Watching her son leave indignantly, Mu Ningxue asked: "The eldest sister came over yesterday and said that Originally, His Majesty wanted to make you the Taishi, and the same president as all the adults, and revised the record of Renzong, but you politely refused. changed his brother-in-law to become a master, and he was very uneasy about it. ”

Xu Hao said casually: "What's uneasy? Regardless of the seniority of the title, there is no doubt that my brother-in-law will be a master, and my father is qualified to be a master in addition to his age? As for me, my dad will live to be at least eighty years old. Hehe, just let Xu Ye wait honestly, he also plans to live to be eighty years old. ”

"Go!" Mu Ningxue stood up and said as she walked: "The older you get, the less serious you are, and now the children are more serious than you." ”

Xu Hao looked at his wife's slender back and said with a smile: "In your mind, I have long been synonymous with impropriety. ”

The book is brief, and the exams are scheduled for July 9, 12, and 15 respectively. The search for candidates to enter the venue was strict, but it was far less stringent than after the Jiaqing Dynasty, and they maintained a general respect for the scholars.

After the candidates submit the papers, they have to go through the procedures of sealing, transcription, and reading, and then send them to the chief examiner and the same examiner for review, and the time for marking the papers is nominally ten days, but in fact it is only three or four days.

Because of the tight time and many test papers, it is impossible to read them carefully, and often if the four-book articles written in the first place can be appreciated by the examiner, they can be Chinese-style and become a glorious lifter.

After Xu Yushun finished the exam, like the students who took the college entrance examination in later generations, the lifters had nothing to do all day long while waiting for the release of the lists, so they wandered around in groups. In ancient times, the amusement projects were limited, and the physiological needs of men were nothing more than eating, drinking, listening to operas, and sitting in the green building.

During this period, Xu Yu and his classmates met Lu Xiong in a narrow way, and the two sides had a quarrel, who knew that Lu Xiong was narrow-minded, Xu Yu just didn't want to cause trouble, and he didn't come forward at that time, and he was not seen.

Lu Xiong went to discuss with his father and brother-in-law, to clean up a few classmates, it is best to get rid of them all, it seems absurd, this kind of thing has been too much in the past dynasties.

Lu Zhenqi is famous for his insidiousness in history, he is Zhu Di's favorite minister, and because of the change in history, he failed to serve as three of the six Shangshu and served as a waiter for a long time, because he was extremely dissatisfied in his heart.

Anyone who can be in a high position must have his own merits, Lu Zhen's strength is excellent memory and thick skin. In history, once a place reported auspicious, he would be the first to lead the ministers to congratulate, although Zhu Di repeatedly reprimanded him in person for being ridiculous, but people never repented, and he was very good at figuring out the intentions......

Son-in-law Zhang He is also such a person, but the papers of these students all fell in Lu Zhen's room, and he couldn't help but pick up the pen and make a mess of it, and threw it in the corner.

However, Lu Zhen specially instructed the transcriptionist to use secret notes on the test paper in advance, and instructed other fellow examiners not to recommend the papers of these people when they saw them, just a few nobodies, and it was difficult for colleagues to refuse, or intentionally or unintentionally concealed from the chief and deputy examiners.

Among the same examiners is a man named Li Shimian, a native of Jiangxi, a Jinshi in the second year of Hongxi, and a university scholar. In his early years, Zhu Gaochi considered following Zhu Di's idea, Jinling was too dangerous, and the capital was moved to Beiping, and Li Shimian was one of the officials with the most fierce opposition and the head of the Qing school; The other is the pragmatic Xia Yuanji, and of course Xu Hao, the head of the meritorious service.

Li Shimian is now an official worshipping the Guozi Priest Wine, and in history he is also the Guozi Priest Wine, as the president of the University directly under the Central Committee, no one knows better than him what is going on with his students.

He didn't want to offend the older Lu Zhen, but his students were obviously talented, so how could he bear to lose his name to Sun Shan? In a dilemma, he was hesitating, and suddenly recognized Xu Yu's handwriting, and said happily: "There is!" Why don't you send this volume to Lu Zhen's room and listen to how he handles it? If this matter is solved, it has nothing to do with me. ”

After reading Xu Yu's scroll a few times, Li Shi sighed: "Xu Gong's talent is not easy, no wonder he is a teacher, but you are friends with them." ”

Asked someone to send the volume, and secretly clicked a few words This is one of them, Li Shimian thought to himself, probably Xu Yu's appointment is hopeless, hoping to lure out Xu Hao, a big tiger. (To be continued......)