A century-old family that runs through the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 355 The first batch of officials of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang military governments

In June of the 20th year of Wuxing, after the construction of examination academies in various places was completed, the first examination of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang military governments officially kicked off.

The military government's newly-built examination halls are one for each government. Naturally, they will not be as small as the imperial court's Gongyuan, and the overall environment is relatively comfortable.

The main participants are naturally students who have graduated from universities, most of whom are from the Department of Political Science and Law.

In addition to them, many people also came to Dongqian Academy. Although some of them chose to leave because of the uprising in the Yan family, there were also many who stubbornly chose to stay.

They all had new ideas. They saw no hope of change in the areas ruled by the imperial court, so they stayed to see if there was any room for them in the new regime.

Of course, it was not that scholars from other forces came to participate in the assessment. The local gentry also sent many family members to come.

"The new regime has just been established and there is a shortage of officials. If you go to the imperial examination at this time, you are more likely to get an official in high school and enter the central government in one fell swoop."

"Rebellion? What are you afraid of? It's just a concubine becoming an official. When the time comes that the clan will be expelled, who can implicate us?"

"The world is in chaos, but it's time to place your bets... When King Jingping selected Emperor Taizu, the Yan family prospered for more than two hundred years. Now, it's our turn!"

Not to mention other examination topics, such as geometry, arithmetic, and human geography, which are even less well known. Except for a few essay questions that combine history, these scholars who were born into landlord families could hardly fill them out.

What, then how will the case be handled by an official? Isn’t this a master?

Some people couldn't help but exclaimed when they saw the test paper.

"Reciting the eighth major item and the seventh minor item of the "Jiangsu and Zhejiang Military Government Provisional Act", what is this?"

When the exam started, they entered the exam hall with confidence and got the test papers. As soon as they saw the long list of questions, they already felt something was wrong - this was not the same as the imperial examination.

When I looked at the title carefully, I was even more stunned.

Not to mention the "Provisional Act of the Military Government of Jiangsu and Zhejiang" adapted from the clan rules, which is the "Law of the Ming Dynasty", none of them would memorize it.

Of course, it is impossible for the military government of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to use traditional Confucianism as the criterion for selecting officials like the imperial court. Otherwise, why would Yan Ling have worked so hard to use Wang Xue to attack the rule of Confucian thought?

However, those landowners and gentry will eventually be disappointed.

Naturally, he knows nothing.

But how could the scholars know this? They thought that this so-called military government was no different from the imperial court. Naturally, what they learned was the same as the eight-part essay. Even when they reviewed it at the end, they also studied the Four Books and Five Classics.

The landowners and gentry were ambitious. Seeing the coming of troubled times, they also started a new round of investment.

But these people were unwilling to leave it blank, so they could only fill it out randomly, or make long arguments based on Confucian classics, hoping that the examiner would give some points for the large number of words.

As for the rest of the candidates who have graduated from universities, although they are not confident that they will definitely win the exam, they are still certain after all, because many of the questions have been explained by their teachers, even if they are not in the corresponding majors. I have studied some by myself and purchased relevant teaching materials.

By the time the exam was over, the candidates' attitudes were extremely polarized. The examiners were also very efficient. On the fifteenth day after the exam, a long list of candidates for the mid-term exam was posted outside the entrance of the examination center.

A large group of people crowded outside the door of every examination hall. As red lists were posted one after another, cheers could be heard from the crowd, or people could lower their eyes and lament.

With the emergence of the examination results, Yan Ling immediately ordered the start of arrangements for entry. At the same time, he also unified the official positions of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang military governments with those of the Luzon Governor's Palace, which was different from those of the Ming Dynasty, to show innovation.

After some filling, the military government, which originally had insufficient official power due to too rapid expansion and had weak governance over various places, finally began to enrich itself.

At this time, half of the official positions in the military government were promoted by the original officials of the family, such as clan elders and town mayors, and the other half were held by new officials selected through examinations.

This will also be the case in the future. There will be an official examination every year, but only some lower-level official positions will be released each time. The number of official positions released will be determined by the current vacancies.

In this way, the twenty-year official examination in Wuxing ended.

A large number of officials were admitted.

However, few of the scholars sent by the landlords and gentry succeeded in becoming officials.

This made the landowners and gentry everywhere very dissatisfied, but they didn't take it too seriously.

As the saying goes, those who win the hearts and minds of the people win the world. However, according to the general understanding of the society at that time, the so-called people were not ordinary people.

They believed that Yan Yinghui would eventually introduce some policies, and perhaps directly send people to appoint them as officials to ensure their interests, in order to gain the support of the landlord class in Jiangsu and Zhejiang and stabilize his rule.

However, what these people didn't know was that if Yan Ling really wanted to win over, even if he didn't lower the difficulty of the questions, he would at least have to announce that the content of this assessment was very different from the imperial examination. Now starting the exam directly is actually cheating them.

He had no intention of letting their people into his government.

After officials at all levels arrived and became familiar with the matters at hand, he immediately issued two orders.

The first is to determine the rent tax rate for each landlord. At this time, the local rents were different. Some landlords were considered to have a good conscience if they received 50% of the rent. There were even many landlords who received 70% of the rent. Even if the family had a larger population, they would not be able to survive. When King Potian revolted, many people followed him, but they couldn't bear the high rent.

Yan Ling ordered that from now on, the rent of each landlord should not exceed 35%, and in times of disaster or famine, the landlords and gentry were obliged to reduce the rent in accordance with government regulations.

At the same time, all hidden households on the landlord's land should be thoroughly investigated, registered, and converted into reasonable and legal tenants.

The second article is to establish an administrative system at the town and village levels below the county level.

It’s no joke that the imperial power of the Ming Dynasty did not go to the countryside. When it reached the county level, it was dominated by clan power. County officials basically cooperated with landlords and gentry from all over the country to achieve the rule of towns outside the county. This also led to Landowners everywhere had great power within the countryside.

Naturally, Yan Ling would not allow this to continue to happen.

As soon as these two regulations were passed down, they immediately caused an uproar among the landowners and gentry everywhere.

(End of this chapter)