Promotion and fortune in Song Dynasty

After returning to the palace, Zhao Zhen withdrew his subordinates in the name of governing affairs, and indeed sat behind the desk, but after absent-mindedly reviewing a few of them, he put down his pen and took out the book hidden in his sleeve. the silk ribbon.

Because of being soaked in water, he hastily rolled it into a ball, and when it unfolded again, it became more and more blurred.

But maybe it is God's will, only the four words "My son benefits" at the beginning are still shockingly clear.

Everyone in the world should avoid the prince's name and surname. Once he becomes emperor, even the ancestors who have passed away will be forced to change their names.

People in the palace should be clear about this, so how could someone commit crimes and even name Erlang 'Beneficiary' despite such a big disgrace?

Unless the person who put this water lamp is his mother, Liu Shengren.

Zhao Zhen thought back to Liu Shengren's usual lukewarm treatment of him, and how he was only eager to please his father at the banquet just now, and he didn't even have time to give him a look in the tenderness, so he felt that this was absolutely impossible.

Even if a lantern was actually set up to pray for him, it could not be a lonely water lantern with such a shabby decoration, but it must be publicized by everyone in the palace and decorated with Chinese things to make it look like it.

Zhao Zhen's face was as sinking as water, so he flattened it, dried it a little, folded it carefully, and put it in the dark compartment.

This secret space is extremely secret, apart from him, only Zhao Heng, who is the emperor, knows about it.

Since Zhao Heng entrusted all the state affairs to him, he went to enjoy his own happiness, and never came to this palace to manage politics again.Then the possibility that he will open the secret compartment and find the inconspicuous ribbon hidden in the innermost by chance is very slim.

After Zhao Zhen hid the things in a safe place, he picked up his pen again and called someone to come in to serve him.

He continued to review the memorial, but in his mind, an unbelievable guess emerged that even he himself felt unbelievable.

... His biological mother, is there someone else?

The tip of Zhao Zhen's pen trembled suddenly, and a bead of ink fell down, ruining a comment that was about to be written.

In the next few days, Zhao Zhen, who was under such tremendous pressure, did not show it to outsiders at all.

Especially on the night when he discovered the existence of this secret, he went to bed on time after reviewing all the memorials as usual, his words and deeds were exactly the same as usual, and he didn't show any clues when he got up to go to the morning.

He held his breath and concentrated, suppressing the thousands of waves in his heart, carefully observing everyone standing in the front row in the court.

If there is really a case of cheating, the people who know the inside story the most are his father and mother.

However, these two people would never tell him the truth no matter what - if what he thought was true, being scolded would be a trivial matter, and what worried him most was that it might bring about the death of the other party.

There must be a few people in the court who know about this matter.

Zhao Zhen instinctively thought that whether it was Kou Xiang, Wang Qinruo, or even Li Di, they might know about it.

But why ask them to disobey the will of the officials and saints, and not hesitate to block their careers, and even their lives, to tell him the truth?

Zhao Zhen's inner torment, entanglement and eagerness, Lu Ci is still unknown.

This student is kind and considerate, even though he vaguely peeped out a shocking secret about his own life experience, he stubbornly resisted the emotional agitation, while quietly selecting helpers in the court, he was unwilling to cause trouble for the other party.

Although he thought of his most trusted little wife, but considering that Lu Ci was only a few years older than himself, and he had only passed the examination for only three years, and he seldom interacted with high officials and dignitaries, so he definitely would not know the inside story.

Zhao Zhen will have no idea for a while, and can only gradually and carefully test it out. When he was newly promoted as Secretary and Provincial Superintendent, Lu Ci, who knew the imperial edict, had already come to the result of his opinions on the changes to the system.

The first thing to change is the subjects of the exam.

Lu Ci drastically changed the 'Jingde Sixth Division' to become the 'Tianxi Twentyth Division'.

He knew that this proposal was bound to cause an uproar, and the reasons he gave were extremely sufficient: after all, when the 'Jingde Six Subjects' were dismissed back then, those who sealed the matter saw 'Tianshu Furui', and in order to please Shangyi, they deliberately boasted' In the Han Dynasty, the virtuous and virtuous were mostly due to wars and catastrophes, so they asked Que Zheng.Now that the country has been enfeoffed by Rui, it is inappropriate to re-establish this department,' for reasons.Now that the "Six Divisions of Jingde" has been restored again, isn't that a clear refutation of the point of "Shou Rui Jianfeng", implying that the country is no longer politically sound and harmonious, but "wars and catastrophes"?

If you really want to get to the bottom of it, it's not just the person who submitted the letter, but also the official Zhao Heng, who is very happy about this and gives instructions.

Who dares to pursue it?

Gradually, everyone woke up from their instinctive opposition and fell silent.

Without them realizing it, because of this thunderstorm, they all ignored Lu Ci's "Six Subjects of Jingde", which were originally very general in terms of Mingmu, such as "Xianliang Fangzheng" and "Dongming". The "Taolue" subjects have been changed beyond recognition, and have become simple and direct subjects such as "Water Conservancy", "Agriculture", "Mathematics", and "Pharmacy".

Naturally, he failed to take into account the opposition.

But that's not the end—Lu Ci immediately wanted to abolish the old system's stipulation that applicants must first submit [-] papers on their careers and have to be reviewed by the attendants of the two provinces before they are allowed to apply.

This caused an uproar again, and the ones who reacted the most were naturally those who were supposed to be in charge of 'seeing the details'.

How could Lu Ci be happy to deprive them of their errands with just one word of mouth?

There were too many people who opposed, not only Kou Zhun wanted to persuade, but even the little prince felt uneasy, and couldn't bear to hurt Lu Ci's face, so he called people into his palace to persuade him.

Lu Ci said clearly: "If you only want to refine the theory, why bother to seek it through the system of examinations? It is enough to pay the talents accepted by the examinations. The rare talents in the imperial examinations are naturally difficult to follow the law. People, but those who are heroes and heroes, why bother memorizing memorizing the mere titles, searching for the numbers in the open and the dark?"

Zhao Zhen was thoughtful.

Lu Ci added: "This time, the subjects I formulated are all related to practice or military strategy, and which ones are related to the Nine Classics, Analects and Mencius?"

Just like the two subjects of water conservancy and farming in the Zhiju, how is it related to the Nine Classics, "The Analects of Confucius" and "Mencius"?

According to the old system, it means that the person not only has to hand in [-] essays in one go, but also has to pass the test before he can take the exam.

So how can it be blamed that there are so few applicants and it is difficult to recruit talents?

It is clear that the threshold is not only set too high, but also set in the wrong place from the beginning.

The so-called system selection should select specific talents who are difficult to collect in tributes, or lack talents in poetry, prose, strategy and theory, but have impressive talents and extraordinary abilities in certain aspects.

If the conventional regulations are still used for screening and restraint, the talents selected will naturally overlap greatly with those selected by the tribute.

It is equivalent to picking out a handful of geniuses who have the ability to get excellent rankings in the tribute exams, or reporters who are extremely knowledgeable and knowledgeable. .

How many people can there be?

Hearing this, Zhao Zhen was mostly convinced.

There is only one thing that makes him feel embarrassed all the time, but he has to say: "If there is no threshold, there will be too many applicants, and the qualifications are mixed, and it will be difficult."

Lu Ci had been prepared for a long time, and immediately pulled out a stack of documents, which were all about the subject settings of the eight colleges he set up when he was in Zhifenzhou: "There must be a threshold. Either you have studied in such colleges for more than Three years, and in the relevant subjects, those who have repeatedly obtained the last or upper-middle ratings will automatically be eligible to apply; either those who have had outstanding or excellent performance in actual construction; or those who have been recommended by local officials and can be recommended Appropriate reasons or relevant credentials of the person . . . to be admitted.”

This kind of screening criteria is naturally far from 'perfect', and there are many loopholes that can be exploited by those who are interested, but it is much more reasonable than asking for fifty papers.

To be honest, it is much easier to make a recommendation at the level of "seeing details" than to make local officials willing to take the risk of joint responsibility.

The more Zhao Zhen listened to it, the more feasible it became, and his mood became more and more excited: "Just like what Secretary Lu said! It's just that these colleges and universities don't seem to have any..."

Lu Ci waited for these words, and immediately took out the proposals prepared in advance about the cost of establishing a school, as well as the size of official land, seeds, or other sideline jobs that were prepared in advance like a conjuring: "Although the minister I have also sorted out some experience, although it needs to be adapted to local conditions, it should be used as a reference."

In Lu Ci's view, if students from these government schools with excellent grades are really allowed to directly participate in the qualifications, and thus have a way to become officials, it will be a virtuous circle for both parties.

With a stable supply of talents, the imperial examinations may be able to be held from 'unscheduled' to 'nearly scheduled', just like the tribute examinations.

The existence of similar official schools has also been supported and maintained because of the source of students and the attention of the court.

Thinking deeper, if the ordinary people who hope to have a son become a dragon can see that sending the gentleman to this kind of official school, there is hope for a bright future through the examination, instead of relying on the tribute examination, you can escape from being a mere party. If there is no official restriction, then the restraint on the genius of "partial science" can be imagined to be weakened a lot.

Looking at the stacks of neatly integrated materials in front of him, Zhao Zhen had mixed feelings in his heart.

There was shock, emotion, and admiration... For a moment, he was speechless.

His little master, how much thought has been spent and how much preparation has been made in advance for the change of the system.

Seeing Zhao Zhen's complexion moved slightly, Lu Ci thought he was still hesitating, and couldn't help saying meaningfully: "When 'reading' these materials in detail, the required troops will come from various ministries, which are much more specialized and careful than relying on only the servants of the two provinces. .”

Of course, the ministries in charge of the affairs related to each 'section' are more qualified to say the quality of talents.

Those who lost their interests were the servants of the two provinces who were dispatched and seized; while those who gained new benefits were the people from various ministries related to the "Twenty Sections".

The group represented by the latter is obviously far larger than the former.

When it is a larger group that gets new benefits, it is difficult to find out the hatred of a small group of people.

Lu Ci is willing to bring a large group of people to drink soup, and he will also get benefits - the resistance he will face in carrying out this matter will be greatly reduced, and the attendants of the two provinces whose interests have been violated obviously dare not act rashly, lest they cause public anger .

Zhao Zhen finally calmed down, thought for a long time, and replied cautiously: "At present, only Fenzhou has this kind of official school. It will take several months to establish it in various places, and it will take another three years to expire...how should I say it?" You have to wait four years before you can hold the system."

Lu Ci nodded: "No hurry."

During this period, there are many things to do.

Whether it is the person who produced the paper, the selection of the scope of the paper, or the review of the paper, it takes a lot of time to discuss before the final decision can be made.

Although Zhao Zhen was full of eagerness to try, he was sensible and did not force or urge him.

He knows very well that the result of acting too hastily is to make do with it.

Young people are now full of ambition, so of course they don't want to pay attention to it.

So Zhao Zhen sighed softly, he could only suppress his disappointment, and concentrate on discussing the specific state capitals where the colleges and universities should be established.

When Lu Ci answered fluently, he also secretly heaved a sigh of relief.

...Finally succeeded in pushing the trouble of 'just leaving the courtyard and being locked up again' to a few years later.

At that time, he will have greater confidence in persuading the little prince to choose a more suitable person to perform this duty, instead of just catching himself as a sheep and pulling hard.