Dahan first prince

Chapter 402

Respectfully bid farewell to her mother, and walked out of Changle Palace, the gloomy look on Liu Ying's face was finally replaced by a touch of relief.

The appointments of the vacancies in the DPRK and China are basically settled.

——Inner History Anguo Hou Wang Ling worshiped the right minister, Huainan minister and Wang Taifu Qu Nihou Chen Ping worshiped the left minister, and Beiping Hou Zhang Cang served as the royal doctor;

As for the post of Internal History that was vacated after Wang Ling worshiped the Prime Minister, Shen Tujia, governor of Huaiyang County, was called back to Beijing.

At the same time, in order to prevent Shentu Jia from being "scorned" by the court because of his title, Liu Ying has to proceed to give Shentu Jia'an the title of Marquis of the Guannei in the name of "benefiting the hero of the Taizu".

In the future, I will find another opportunity to let Shentujia fight two battles, and take advantage of the opportunity to promote Shentujia's title from Marquis of Guannei to Marquis of Che, and the last procedure for Shentujia to become Prime Minister can be regarded as making up.

As for Liu Ying's worries about Shen Tujia before, they were also resolved by Lu Zhi's understatement.

——It is easy to fight the world, but it is difficult to defend the world;
The difficulty here not only refers to the fact that civil governance is more complicated than martial arts, but also refers to the talents who govern the country.

Not only the Han Dynasty, but every dynasty in history, if we want to talk about the blowout period of talents, it must be around the founding of the country.

There is no other reason: the times make heroes.

After the founding of the country, as the first generation of founding fathers bid farewell to the power center, the overall quality of officials, especially the decision-making layers of the court, will inevitably usher in a relatively large decline.

This is unavoidable.

After all, no matter what, Liu Ying can't expect that in the next few hundred years, every public official in Liu Han Sheji can have the exaggerated quality of the founding meritorious service.

This is simply not realistic.

Therefore, the reason why Liu Ying accepted a "moderate talent" like Shen Tujia to succeed Zhang Cang as the prime minister was just a common saying.

——Pull out the general from the dwarf.

Since Shen Tujia was already the best among this group of people, Liu Ying had no other choice.

As for the appointment standards of the Han family ministers in the future, Liu Ying has also changed her mind: as long as you don't abandon the glorious tradition of "both civil and military" for the Han family ministers, the standard is inferior, so let's be inferior.

After all, from another perspective, the level of the prime minister is relatively low, which means that the power of the prime minister will be relatively not so strong. For the emperor Liu Ying who was in his prime at that time, it was not a bad thing.

The problem of internal history is solved, and the problems of the other Jiuqings naturally have no obstacles.

——Liu Yingke, Crown Prince of Chu, will soon become the first Zongzheng of Liu Han!
It may seem a little strange to take the crown prince as a family member, but considering the particularity of Zongzheng's position, it is not so strange.

Liu Ying, there is really no other way...
It is true that at present, Ding Bufeng, a relative of the Liu family, can't find a few clan elders who meet the two conditions of 'higher seniority' and 'good conduct' at the same time;
In the past, Liu Bang's status as the founding king of the country was naturally able to allow Zongzheng to be in the position, and it has been idle since the founding of the country;
After all, no matter what, it is impossible for Liu Bang to encounter the problem of 'because the seniority is not as high as the other party, so it is difficult to deal with the other party'.

——Among all Liu's clan relatives, the only one who is higher than Liu Bang is the Supreme Emperor Liu Xie!

But in Liu Ying's generation, Zong Zhengqing couldn't continue to be idle.

The reason is very simple: Liu Bang can't meet someone with a higher seniority than himself, but it doesn't mean Liu Ying can't touch them!
Even if she couldn't meet any clansman with a higher seniority than her own, it would be difficult for Liu Ying to deal with those brothers and sisters of the same generation, as well as the side clansmen.

After all, Liu Ying ascended the throne at a young age, and her foundation was already unstable;

When encountering some difficult clan affairs, it is even more impossible to deal with them recklessly.

Therefore, it became the unanimous choice of the queen mother Lu Zhi and the emperor Liu Ying to take the crown prince Liu Yingke as Zongzheng.

From the point of view of seniority, Liu Yingke is of the same generation as Liu Ying, and most of the clan princes in the Kanto region are also of the same generation;

But from the point of view of 'virtue', Liu Yingke absolutely lived up to the good reputation of his father, King Liujiao of Chu!
Furthermore, even though Liu Yingke was of the same generation as Liu Ying's generation, that is, the second generation of the Liu family, he was already over forty years old, and he was already a little old man.

— After all, Liu Jiao is not Taizu Liu Bang~
It cannot be said that there are no people like Liu Bang who married in their forties and had sons in their forties, but they are very few in this era.

Therefore, it is a very suitable arrangement for Liu Yingke to be Zongzheng.

Of course, with Liu Yingke as the patriarch, there is still a hidden danger: as a son, Liu Yingke can't control his father Liu Jiao at all;

But fortunately, Liu Jiao is definitely not a dude family member worthy of Liu Ying's concern. This hidden danger is naturally ignored by Liu Ying.

Apart from Zongzheng, there is nothing to say about other positions.

——Even the internal history of the head of the Nine Ministers, Liu Ying has "raised the general from the dwarf", and the other vacancies are obviously based on this;
For example, when an old acquaintance of Lu's pheasant tried to eat him, Liu Ying'an took the position of a pawnbroker, which was regarded as compensation for Lu's relatives;
For the other positions, I also found a few passable ones from among the founding fathers, so I will occupy the positions first.

As for the future, according to the actual situation, it is necessary to make targeted adjustments one by one.

Liu Ying is still young and has plenty of time to adjust.

But the shortage of talents, especially the lack of senior officials, made Liu Ying a little worried.

"Examination..."

"Um······"

Sitting on the imperial chariot returning to Weiyang Palace, Liu Ying frowned again.

If we talk about the difficulty of defending the world in the saying "conquering the world is easy, defending the world is difficult", it is undoubtedly the transition from being a martial artist to governing the country by civil servants.

Of course, as Liu Han was famous for his "abundance of martial arts" in the history of China, no matter how "literary" a civil official is, it is impossible to be a pure civil official;

Especially in today's imperial court, under the unspoken political rules of 'you cannot be a minister unless you are a prince', or even 'you cannot be a public official or minister if you are a prince', it is absolutely impossible for a purely civil official who has not been in the army to be among the top ranks. at the decision-making level.

But even so, after more than ten years after the founding of the country, and gradually ushering in a period of peaceful development, it is inevitable that the composition of officials will gradually shift from "military" to "civilian".

The logic couldn't be simpler;
——Before and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the selection method of officials was based on Wu Xun!

Whoever has the highest martial arts will be a high official; whoever has the lowest martial arts will queue up behind!

This method of selecting and appointing officials is naturally the easiest and most cost-effective in the short term;
Coupled with the fact that the overall quality of the founding fathers of the early Han Dynasty was a bit outrageously high, this also made this theoretically absurd selection and appointment method not cause any trouble in the Han Dynasty.

Not only did it not cause any trouble, but it also created several virtuous ministers and prime ministers who will go down in history!
But after the founding of the country, especially after the founding fathers gradually aged, how should officials be selected and appointed?

Wu Xun?

The battles are over, and they have entered a period of peaceful development. Where can I find so many meritorious ministers? !
And this is the main reason why after the founding of the country, the way the court selected officials was tilted from "Wu" to "Wen".

——No more battles...

If Wu Xun is still used as the official selection standard, let alone the Chang'an court, even the twelve positions of the Sangong and Jiuqing will definitely not be able to be filled.

Therefore, when these founding fathers faded out of the ruling and opposition parties, the regime had to find another way to select officials.

In the past, the "opening a new path" here was mainly the recommendation of Xiaolian, Li Tian, ​​and the virtuous Fang Zai, or the "requisition" directly sent by the emperor when he heard that someone had great talent.

But it is obvious that such a single method of talent selection cannot fill the vacancies of officials, especially those at the decision-making level.

As for the supplementary method of the recommendation system: paying officials, there is no need to mention it.

Purchasing officials, to put it nicely, it is called official selection, to put it bluntly, it is the legal selling of officials by the central government of the court!

Since it is selling officials, the officials that can be recruited are naturally merchants;

——Ordinary people can't afford an official at all, and famous families don't need to buy an official at all. They just need to mobilize contacts, ask a friend of the county governor to write a letter of introduction, or even directly recommend it!
However, the group of officials with the theme of the children of merchants, "Baiguan", is naturally at a disadvantage under the current political background of the Han Dynasty.

It is true that there may be some well-informed and broad-minded talents among the rich officials and rich men who were born as merchants;

But at the very least, at the current stage of development of the Han Dynasty, and the political environment is suppressing the merchant group in all directions, the probability of this group producing 'talent' is almost negligibly low.

According to Liu Ying's calculations, at least two or three decades later, when the Han Dynasty gradually became prosperous, the court began to deliberately loosen the shackles of the merchant group, so that industry and commerce could prosper, so that this group could be counted on to send officials to the court.

But at present, merchant groups can't count on it at all.

The quality of the recommendation system is high enough, but the quantity is insufficient; the quantity of the recommendation system is sufficient, but the quality is uneven;

In this way, the examination system, which uses literary examinations as the means of selecting officials, naturally entered Liu Ying's vision.

Speaking of exams, the courts of the Han Dynasty are no strangers.

A few years ago, Liu Ying reported a small-scale examination with a certain intention of experimenting on the grounds that there was a lack of officials in Shanglinyuan;

Although the effect was not satisfactory, and no outstanding talents were selected, it can be regarded as creating a precedent of "selecting officials by literary examination".

And the "unsatisfactory" here is only relative to Liu Ying's expectation.

Nowadays, most of the officials selected in that examination are working in Shanglinyuan and various departments of the Shaofu;
According to the feedback from Shaofu Yang Chengyan, although these officials did not have any great talents, they were unexpectedly practical and hardworking!
From Liu Ying's point of view, this group of people can't be regarded as heroes;
However, if we only compare them horizontally based on the rank and salary ranging from [-] to [-] shi, this group of people can definitely deserve to be called "everyone can be an official".

With this group of people as a reference, in recent years, the talk about 'reopening the exam' has also increased.

From the perspective of the imperial court alone, the time to hold the imperial examinations on a large scale can be said to be ripe.

But Liu Ying still has some doubts about this.

The first thing to bear the brunt is how to resolve the impact of the examination on the old aristocracy and the privileged class;

In the last exam, Liu Ying only selected a hundred or so small officials at the Baishi level, and most of them were doing hard work in the Shaofu.

However, if large-scale examinations are carried out, the number of officials selected must be in units of thousands, or even tens of thousands.

Naturally, tens of thousands of officials can't all be stuffed into the Shaofu, but to "spread evenly with rain and dew", so that the courts have their own offices, and even local counties.

And in this way, no matter how big-hearted the aristocratic class is, it is impossible to turn a blind eye to the exam.

It is true that even if they do not pass the examination, the aristocratic class of the Han Dynasty can still find official positions for their descendants through their own political connections;
Or, directly begging Liu Ying for mercy, sending a few sons to the palace for training, and then releasing them outside, is also the start of a middle-level general.

But this is just the beginning.

The exam has just started, and the aristocracy may not react yet;
But what about when these batches of officials with examination background gradually become a force that cannot be ignored in the localities and even in the court?
Among these officials who were born in the examination, there are county magistrates at the level of a thousand stones, local sheriffs at the level of two thousand stones, and even heroes who have entered the court and ranked as ministers?
At that time, I am afraid that the aristocratic class who have reacted will inevitably launch an extremely violent counterattack after being stunned!
——Since ancient times, all those who shake the status of the privileged class have never had a good end;

The system that shakes the position of the privileged class has never existed for long.

Therefore, now that the idea of ​​taking the exam has just appeared in her mind, Liu Ying is going to patch up the counterattack that the privileged class may launch in the future.

"Um······"

"Add a martial arts test?"

After thinking about it for a long time, a thought suddenly flashed through Liu Ying's mind, which made Liu Ying's frown slightly loosen.

In later generations, civil and military examinations were divided into examinations, and civil officials and military commanders were selected respectively, which can be regarded as one of the characteristics of the imperial examination system.

But in the Han Dynasty, Liu Ying did not need to separate the two at all, but took them as two subjects that every candidate must take.

The Han family established the country with martial arts and ruled the country with filial piety.

Adding a martial arts test, under the current political background of the Han Dynasty, is also zz correct in an absolute sense.

Furthermore, adding a martial arts test is enough to guarantee the privileged class a share in the feast of "examination".

——The principle of poor culture and rich military is not only found in later generations.

Those who can pass the martial arts exam may not all be the sons of nobles; but in this generation, those who can rank among the best in the martial arts exam are definitely not "from a poor family"!
Thinking of this, Liu Ying lifted the curtain of the car and looked at Chuntuo who was trotting beside the imperial chariot.

"Go, Zhao Neishi..."

"No, all the ministers and ministers of the imperial court who are on the two thousand stones will go to the Xuanshi ceremony."

After explaining calmly, Liu Ying put down the curtain of the car again, smiled slightly in the imperial chariot, and slowly closed her eyes.

——The general environment has been formed, and the soil for imperial examinations has been formed;

Even the interests of the aristocratic class, Liu Ying also considered.

Then, the next step is the specific implementation plan.

(End of this chapter)