after being kidnapped by the general

The height is not cold.

Yuanli understood this sentence more and more.

Whether it's subordinates, relatives, or friends, after Yuanli's status is getting higher and higher, they have to think about what they say in front of Yuanli for a long time, and act cautiously, lest they make Yuanli feel offended.

Lonely and widowed, before reaching that position, Yuan Li had some understanding of these four characters.

Except for his parents and Chu Hechao, no one around him could call Yuanli's name.They called Yuanli "Wen Gong" and treated Yuanli as their own monarch.Even though Yuanli's attitude towards them was as gentle as before, they did not dare to be presumptuous.

But that's what's bound to happen.

If Yuanli continued to laugh and fight with them, there would be chaos between the monarch and his ministers.Without majesty, courtiers will make mistakes if they are indulged, and it will be even more difficult to deal with when they are overstepped.

Yuanli understands rationally, this is very good.

But his childhood friend turned into this, which made him a little melancholy after all.

The next day, Xiang Hongyun and Zhan Shaoning went to the Political Affairs Hall.In the afternoon, Ding Zongguang also sent Yuanli the gift lists from various princes when Yuanli was named Duke.

There were four people who gave the most gifts, two of them were Dadan, the leader of North Karasuma, and Puyan, the leader of South Karasuma.

In order to show their respect for Yuanli, the two men gave gifts in the same way, and each sent their own confidantes to flatter Yuanli.

It's no wonder that the two of them are so enthusiastic. Now Karasuma is divided into two, and Gu Lichi's power is divided by Chu Hechao, which is not as good as before.Dadan and Puyan are evenly matched, they are hostile to each other and vigilant, and they both want to win over Yuanli and Chu Hechao so that they can take power alone.

Of the five counties that once housed Karasuma people, only Shanggu County and Yuyang County remain.According to reports from the sheriffs of these two counties, Dadan and Puyan are much more honest than before, probably because they know who to behave to.

The two of them didn't mention it, the remaining two were also acquaintances, they were Che Kangbo and Hui Zizhen.

Seeing their names, Yuan Li couldn't help laughing, these two unlucky governors have sent money to Yuan Li so far, and the cashiers in their own state have been there for two years.

They tried so hard to brag about Yuanli about Chu Hechao, and they gave Yuanli so much money just to prove their innocence.But how could Yuanli allow them to wash away the sewage so easily?

He directly asked Ding Zongguang to send back the things that the two men had sent, and then asked Ding Zongguang to tell them that the gift was too expensive for him to accept.

This money is not as important as the "handle" left by Che and Hui.

Even with the help of Xiang Hongyun and Zhan Shaoning, the Zhengshitang is still too busy.There are not enough local officials in the counties of Jizhou, and many official positions have to be replaced by people from Yuanli, so the available people are even more insufficient.

Not only is Jizhou short of manpower, but Bingzhou, which has suffered more severe wars, is also short of manpower. Busy officials in Bingzhou visit various places almost every year to enlist famous Confucian scholars to serve Bingzhou, but it seems like a drop in the bucket, not enough.

In the past few years, the intelligence personnel of the Grain Institute have gone deep into the counties and counties of various places, personally visited the bottom of the country, started to investigate the situation of officials in Youzhou, Bingzhou, and Jizhou from the county magistrate, and punished them for their misconduct. The list of officials with corruption, bullying the people and other bad deeds was given to Yuanli.

If it was before, Yuanli still needs to endure, because he does not have enough strength to remove so many people in one go, nor does he have enough officials to fill them.But after Fenggong, Yuanli didn't need to bear it anymore, he didn't even need any reason to replace all these officials, because he became the real master of Jizhou and Bingzhou.

He really didn't intend to endure it, but people can be removed, where can we find the replacement officials?

If you want to change Youzhou, Bingzhou, and Jizhou, Yuanli needs at least [-] officials.

Where can I find six hundred people who are talented, literate, and able to be officials?

Yuanli didn't worry for a long time, and an idea that he had long ago gradually became clear in his heart.

— Imperial Examinations!

Today's official selection system is still the procuratorial system.Hereditary, recommended, and powerful gentry are entangled with each other, relying on blood and connections to spread a large net, firmly monopolizing the official position in their own hands, making writing and knowledge the unique resources of the upper class.

Ordinary people will never have access to these resources. They can only plant the land for a lifetime, and then their descendants will also plant the land for a lifetime.It is impossible for them to become officials. There is a natural moat between ordinary people and being an official.

The imperial examination is a bridge to break through the natural moat.

Provide opportunities for people who do not have the status of nobles and scholars to participate in politics, so as to break the monopoly of powerful nobles on official positions and knowledge.The imperial examination was the fairest form of official selection in the feudal era, and it was a real opportunity for people at the bottom to leap into the sky. *

Yuanli had the idea of ​​replacing the examination system with the imperial examination system a long time ago. Now that he has become the Duke of Wen, the three northern states are unified. Even if he uses a relatively novel way of selecting talents, no gentry and powerful people dare to comment Well, he is doing it on his own territory, and he chose officials from the Duke of Wen, not from the Northern Zhou Dynasty. Why should outsiders say so much?

Thinking of this, Yuan Li felt that it was time for him to take out the imperial examination.

On the same day, he summoned the officials of the Political Affairs Hall and asked them to arrange that he would hold a talent selection in Ye County, Jizhou, and named this selection the imperial examination.

The imperial examination will be conducted by sub-subject examinations, and the final selection will be based on the results, and finally [-] talents will be selected.

Hearing this incident, all the ministers felt extremely novel.Because Yuanli's status is high enough, and he is very powerful among his subordinates, this is Yuanli's first order after he became Wen Gong, and no one refuted it. Liu Jixin was the first to ask: "My lord, I don't know if this 'examination' what is this about?"

"I will write the questions, and the students will answer them. Whoever answers well will be selected for inclusion," Yuan Li said with a smile. "This imperial examination only depends on the test scores, regardless of the origin and place of origin."

"What?!" Everyone was shocked, and quickly asked Yuanli more about the imperial examination.

Yuan Li explained it again, and the officials who had been greatly shocked couldn't recover for a long time. They looked at each other in blank dismay, and several staff members with bad backgrounds already understood what the "imperial examination" meant to the poor.

This is a form that has never been seen before. Abandoning the background and past achievements, only looking at one's own knowledge and talent, everyone is fair in front of the test questions.

The turbulent emotions grew stronger and stronger in Liu Jixin's heart, almost bringing tears to his eyes.He had mixed feelings, remembering all the efforts he had made in the past to embark on an official career.

He has gone through untold hardships to get to where he is today, and he is considered lucky.There are more and more people who want to be officials, and their wealth is lost, and their wives and children are separated.

But now, as long as he can pass the selection, he can become an official under Yuanli.In the past, this was a good thing that Liu Jixin could not have imagined in his dreams. He was extremely happy and sad at the same time. He was happy that this way would undoubtedly give people with bad backgrounds a chance to climb up, and he was sad because of his past bumps and bumps. Never had an opportunity like this before.

Liu Jixin even felt envious of the students who were about to pass the imperial examination, and envied them for having such an opportunity, a chance to become an official easily.

Liu Jixin suddenly thought of a person who had died long ago——Xiao Ce.

If Xiao Ce had lived to this day and found that the official position he had been chasing for a lifetime was so within reach, he would have burst into tears, he couldn't believe it.

If he could know today, would he still frame the lord at that time?

He took a deep breath, suppressed thousands of emotions, and immediately said: "My lord, this method is very good, and my subordinates think it can be done!"

People with bad backgrounds such as Guo Mao, Wang Er, Wu Kai, and Yuan Dan responded immediately. They were enthusiastic and actively expressed their support for the imperial examination.

Those present were not without people from better backgrounds, such as Zhan Shaoning, Zhou Gongdan and Jia Qing.

But no matter what they thought in their hearts, they didn't refute it on the face, and they also accepted this way of selecting talents.

But at this time, all of them thought that this "imperial examination" was just an emergency method used by Yuanli because of the shortage of manpower, and it should only be done once.

Soon, news spread that Duke Wen would hold the imperial examination in Ye County.

Like a drop of water poured into boiling oil, the news spread across the northern states and counties in an instant like fire, and the speed of spread was astonishing.

The students who heard the news were either surprised or happy, but most of them immediately packed their bags and rushed to Jizhou after thinking about it.

Literate people were a very small part of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, but among this small part, only a few top scholars held official positions.

Among the most talented students who can read and write, people like Xiao Ce and Liu Jixin account for the majority. Even Yuanli, the son of the county magistrate, is from a poor family, and he has to do everything possible to become an official, let alone others.The vast majority of students have only two paths to go, either to be a staff member, or to worship the master and be one of the many disciples, looking for connections so that they can be recommended to embark on an official career.

Both of these are difficult. If you want to get ahead, you have to walk on a single-plank bridge among thousands of troops. There is really no way out of the single-plank bridge.

But now, with the opportunity to become an official just by proving their talents, how can a student with a bad background give up?

What's more, now that the general trend of the world is in the north, they rushed to the north without even hesitation, because they knew that more and more people would come to take the imperial examination.If they want to seize the opportunity, they have to give it a go.

Even if the officials they want to be are Wen officials instead of Northern Zhou officials, they can't stop their eager steps.

There are also many people who are well-born scholars wavering.

They control the number of recommended places, and it stands to reason that there is no shortage of officials to do it.

But now the world has changed.

They can recommend each other to be officials, but the emperor is now in decline, and the Northern Zhou court has only a false name.Is it possible to go to a Northern Zhou court without real power and be a trembling official without real power?

In troubled times, the resources they owned suddenly lost their original value and became useless.If you can't be an official of the emperor, your knowledge will be useless, and the family will be in a panic. Many celebrities can only wait in the family and wait for opportunities.

People with insight can clearly see the general trend of the world, and now there are only two forces that are worth relying on.One is Yuanli and Chu Hechao in the north, and the other is Chen Wang in the south.

These two parties are huge political groups, and the big family will not only choose one side to take sides.They have a better way, which is to divide the outstanding children in the family into two, and take refuge in the north and the south respectively.

In this way, no matter who wins in the end, these families can remain invincible.

This is also the reason why these aristocratic families can last for a hundred years.

Now Yuanli's talent selection is providing them with a chance to become Yuanli's courtiers.