Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 627 Showy Operation

If the cabinet does not cooperate, the emperor must make a gesture.

If we can't cause trouble during the provincial examinations, then we can cause trouble during the palace examinations. We can also add an examination procedure between the palace examinations and the Six Ministries' inspection of governance.

Don't ask why, the answer is the emperor's personal preferences. Can't the emperor have some personal preferences?
With Jia Lian's suggestion, Li Yuan was overjoyed. After personally delivering the proposal to Jia Lian, he immediately approved the cabinet's memorial, stipulating that the next provincial examination should be standardized nationwide.

To demonstrate the emperor's fairness, Li Yuan also noted in his reply that the Ministry of Rites should prepare a batch of textbooks as soon as possible and send them to all provinces across the country, and that this year's provincial examinations should be postponed to next year.

After receiving the approval, the cabinet breathed a sigh of relief; they had finally overcome this hurdle.

This is the pressure brought about by the absolute legal advantage of imperial power! Another point that the cabinet has been very worried about is that there has been no response to the matter of the imperial examination.

In theory, the imperial examination was held once every three years. Adding an extra examination meant that scholars across the country would have one more chance to take the imperial examination, which meant that more than a hundred more scholars would be selected.

Even being an official has its standards; those who passed the imperial examinations and became officials were on the right path. Civil officials were at the top of the social hierarchy.

Many people only choose other channels to become officials after they have no hope of taking the imperial examination route.

Over the course of more than a century in the Zhou Empire, the problem of redundant officials existed, and it was quite serious. It was extremely difficult for officials of miscellaneous ranks to obtain a substantive post. Newly appointed Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations) would always be assigned a position by the court unless they voluntarily gave up. Unlike other officials, they didn't need to exert themselves in the Ministry of Personnel to secure a substantive post.

With the decision to include practical knowledge in next year's provincial examinations and to follow the rules for mathematics, the cabinet's subsequent operations will be much more efficient. This really can't be delayed, or the scholars of the land will curse us.

After passing this hurdle, at the next cabinet meeting, Lin Ruhai took the initiative to suggest: "Your Majesty, I request that a special imperial examination be held! This will demonstrate the Emperor's boundless grace, which benefits all under heaven."

You can't say Lin Ruhai was flattering him, but he really was.

The remaining cabinet ministers all stood up in agreement, and Li Yuan, in a good mood, smiled and said, "Since you all agree, let's draft a proposal and submit it as soon as possible!"

That's how it's settled. It's April now, and Nko will be able to hold the event before the end of the year.

The cabinet was quite satisfied; they had secured an opportunity for all the tribute students in the country to take the imperial examination. Although the emperor kept delaying, using this as leverage to force the cabinet to comply.

After the cabinet issued the rules for next year's provincial examination, the official gazette was published a few days later, and the local newspapers were still discussing the matter. Many die-hards were still protesting against the "tyranny" in the newspapers. Then the news of the special examination came out, and suddenly no one was discussing the "tyranny". More people were concerned about the special examination. After discovering that the newspapers did not mention that the special examination would include practical learning content, the next day's newspapers emphasized it more. People were glad that they could participate in the special examination and the tribute students in next year's spring examination, as they would have two consecutive opportunities and would not have to take the practical learning content.

While arguments may occur in the public sphere, the stability of the national political situation makes it difficult for public opinion to cause a significant stir.

Those who had the opportunity to participate in the special imperial examination had no time to express their political opinions; they were all busy traveling. The special imperial examination was scheduled for early October, and given the transportation of that era, it would take a month for people from afar to receive the news. They also had to travel to the capital to take the examination, so they didn't want to waste any time.

The Ministry of Rites can handle Enke's affairs; the cabinet ministers have too many official duties to attend to.

As a result, Yue Qi, who proposed military reforms last time, faced pressure from military officers and nobles from all over the country after his memorial was withheld from the palace.

They were all generals, and who wouldn't want their troops to be better equipped and receive more funding each year?

Yue Qi was able to secure his position as Grand Secretary because he had the support of a group of generals. The generals and officers of various border garrisons and provinces were all hoping that Yue Qi could bring benefits to everyone.

The Zhou Empire's army was roughly divided into three parts: the capital garrison, the provincial garrisons, and the border garrisons. The provincial garrisons probably received the worst treatment.

When it comes to the strongest driving force for military reform, it is naturally the border towns. The reason is simple: in the past, they were the strongest fighting force, but after the first batch of military reforms, their status in the army has declined significantly.

Yue Qi came from the border army, and while the various border armies naturally supported him, this also brought him enormous pressure.

Yue Qi was unwilling to accept that his last memorial had been rejected, so he naturally wanted to submit it again.

After Jia Lian helped with the accounting, Li Yuan felt more confident and gave Yue Qi a chance to present his case in person.

Yue Qi was quite pleased and quickly prepared various arguments, hoping to get the emperor's approval first so that they could be formally discussed at the cabinet meeting. Only after the arguments were approved could the formal procedures be followed.

After the emperor and his minister met, Li Yuan took the initiative to ask Yue Qi, "What is the estimated cost of the military reforms that Minister Yue proposed?"

Yue Qi was stunned. Why was he being asked this? He hadn't done the math. After a moment's hesitation, Yue Qi said, "This humble subject hasn't done the math."

Li Yuan wasn't angry. He smiled and asked again, "The newly formed Beijing Garrison's junior officers are mainly graduates of the Royal Military Academy, and senior officers also need to attend military academies for further study. Only those who pass the exams can lead troops. I ask you, Yue Qing, is the current number of military academy students sufficient for the needs of military reform? Are the old-style generals able to pass the military academy's assessments?"

Yue Qi was stunned again. All his preparations had been ineffective, mainly because he subjectively believed that Li Yuan was ignorant of military affairs. Furthermore, when Emperor Chenghui carried out the military reform of the Beijing Garrison, he had entrusted it to Yue Qi without asking many questions, and the funding was ample.

The reason why Yue Qi was stumped was naturally because the situation had changed. At that time, although the Beijing Garrison had a certain fighting capacity, it had long been controlled by nobles, and Emperor Chenghui had a strong desire to change the Beijing Garrison.

Li Yuanze was different. After completing the military reform of the Beijing Garrison, the power that could threaten the emperor was gone, and the nationwide military reform was no longer so urgent.

Once you're not in such a rush, settling accounts naturally becomes important.

Furthermore, Jia Lian trained a new army in order to expand into Southeast Asia, and in fact, he did take over a large area of ​​Southeast Asia.

What is the purpose of Yue Qi's military reform? After the reform is completed, are there any clear objectives? If not, then what is the necessity of the military reform?

It is said that the world is a makeshift organization, and the imperial court is much the same. Without urgent military pressure, the imperial court has no motivation to make changes in order to save money.

Li Yuan felt the same way. After Jia Lian calculated the accounts for him, Li Yuan even suspected that Yue Qi might be eyeing the small amount of savings in the imperial treasury, or that the rare silver deposits in Taicang were being coveted.

As both are armies, Li Yuan had witnessed the fighting power and strict discipline of the Nanyang New Army firsthand. Therefore, even if a comprehensive military reform were to be implemented, he preferred to have Jia Lian in charge, rather than Yue Qi. Even if Yue Qi were to be used, Jia Lian would be tasked with developing a set of rules and regulations, with the Imperial Guard in charge of oversight, leaving Yue Qi with little room for maneuver.

Stumped by the question, Yue Qi realized something was wrong and cautiously asked, "Your Majesty, the military reform has the example of the Beijing Garrison. The required expenses and personnel don't necessarily need to be implemented all at once."

Li Yuan was much more composed now and did not rush to refute Yue Qi. Instead, he calmly said, "I know that Minister Yue is also doing this for the sake of the country. How about this, go back and come up with a comprehensive plan, discuss and approve it in the Ministry of War first, and then send it to the cabinet for collective discussion. I don't have too many ideas here."

Upon hearing this, Yue Qi breathed a sigh of relief, realizing things weren't too bad. He quickly stood up and replied, "Your Majesty, I was anxious. I'll go back and prepare immediately."

After Li Yuan politely saw him off, he turned back to Hu Min beside him and said, "This fellow has gone too far in bullying me! Hmph, I have seen the new army before, how can I allow such a person to bully me?"

Hu Min could only be a quiet listener, adhering to the principle of never interfering in politics.

Fortunately, Li Yuan didn't say much. He just made a casual remark and let it go. He sat in his chair, looked at the pile of memorials in front of him, sighed, and continued working.

This is already a memorial filtered by the cabinet. There was an Imperial Secretariat during the reign of Emperor Seonghui, but it was suspended after Li Yuan ascended the throne.

Seeing that there were too many tasks and it was too much for one person to handle, Li Yuan once again considered restarting the secretariat. The previous secretariat consisted of people trusted by the late emperor, and naturally, he would use his own people now.

For this reason, Li Yuan even issued an imperial edict to the cabinet, stating that there would be no general amnesty, but that several officials exiled to Southeast Asia would be pardoned and allowed to return as secretaries.

The reason it's called the Secretariat is because Li Yuanxue and Jia Lian set it up. Jia Lian has a Secretariat staffed by his side to help handle various affairs. They used to be called advisors or secretaries, but Jia Lian recently changed that.

These kinds of details reveal Jia Lian's influence on Li Yuan.

Lin Ruhai saw the imperial edict, and legally he had the right to reject it. However, this matter wasn't worth going against the emperor; they were just a few exiled officials.

After informing the other cabinet members and giving an announcement, Lin Ruhai approved the plan and then issued it to Southeast Asia as an official imperial edict.

As for the amnesty, Lin Ruhai really didn't care. After all, so many of the exiled officials were those who had been implicated during Zhang Ting'en's tenure, and Lin Ruhai himself had been involved in quite a few cases.

It's good to let these people contribute to the country on the frontier; as for criminals among the common people, that's even less of a concern. The imperial court has been continuously sending people to the border regions for years, but due to the lack of enthusiasm from local officials, the results have been poor. On the contrary, many people from the common people have voluntarily fled to the border regions, with many from Hebei and Shandong fleeing to the Northeast, and many from Shaanxi privately fleeing to Gansu and even Xinjiang. The largest scale of immigration is from various parts of Southeast Asia, with Guangdong and Guangxi being the best-performing regions officially, followed by private merchants.

Similar emigration was actively opposed by gentry in the interior, and local officials also lacked enthusiasm. Many officials have been dealt with in recent years, but the results have been minimal.

The reason is simple: as the lowest-ranking official, the county magistrate has limited power and can easily be sidelined by the gentry. Unless the magistrate is a strong-willed person who disregards personal gains and losses and is determined to confront the gentry head-on, such officials are rare, extremely rare.

There were also many immigrants from Fujian and Zhejiang, mostly organized by the people themselves, with little official involvement. However, the people in the mountainous areas of Fujian and Zhejiang were known for their fierce and adventurous spirit, and the local gentry had little way to stop them.

In short, it was no big deal for the emperor to bring back a few officials who had shared joys and sorrows with him in Southeast Asia.

As for civilian migration, local officials turn a blind eye, and no one is willing to risk offending the cabinet to stop illegal coastal migrants.

Following the issuance of the imperial edict to fully promote practical learning in the imperial examinations, textbooks on practical learning experienced a new sales boom.

In response, the Ministry of Rites made a rather unethical decision: it purchased a batch of textbooks from the Jia family's bookstore in the capital at cost price, then distributed them to various provinces across the country, selling them at double the original price.

Educational institutions in each province have no choice but to purchase it; this amount is mandatory and is essentially a forced quota.

This kind of thing naturally follows a top-down trend. By the provincial level, the textbooks sent by the Ministry of Rites were definitely not enough, so they simply printed their own batch and distributed them to schools at all levels. They also issued documents mandating that all official schools at all levels not use privately produced textbooks, but only official ones. Isn't it just a matter of assigning quotas? Who doesn't know how to do that?

I don't know if the practical learning textbooks have been fully promoted, but at least we can make a profit by selling them.

This matter has caused quite a stir among the public, mainly because Guangdong and Guangxi provinces started implementing practical education several years ago, and their teaching materials are all free.

Thanks to newspapers, information transmission between provinces is much faster and wider than before.

When the Guangdong and Guangxi regions saw the teaching materials sent by the Ministry of Rites and the requirement to distribute them, they immediately rejected them. They stated that Guangdong and Guangxi did not need the teaching materials; they had plenty of their own. Considering the effort the Ministry of Rites had put into transporting them, Guangdong and Guangxi would offer a price covering cost and transportation costs, but not a higher price.

After this news spread, scholars from other provinces protested, arguing, "Why should I have to use expensive textbooks?"

At first, the uproar only affected Hunan and Fujian provinces, but the news gradually spread inland, and within about a month, the whole country was in turmoil over the textbook issue.

The censors from various regions naturally had to report, and officials at all levels also had to process the reports before reporting them. After receiving the reports, Lin Ruhai subtly criticized Li Qing for being unreliable at a small cabinet meeting.

Li Qing was scolded but had no choice but to swallow it. He then summoned the officials from the Ministry of Rites and gave them a barrage of insults, telling them to figure out a solution themselves.

Li Yuan also learned of this matter and expressed his amazement. He thought, "Even for something as small as this, the Ministry of Rites still manages to make a fortune. What a fine official the court is!"

The relevant memorials were not forwarded to the Emperor by the Cabinet; they were handled internally. It was utterly shameful.

The Ministry of Rites' explanation was absurd. They claimed that time was too tight, so they resorted to this desperate measure. Wasn't this for the benefit of students from all over the country? How did they end up being blamed?

Ultimately, no major incident occurred because the cabinet acted decisively for the first time. At a cabinet meeting before the emperor, the cabinet proposed dismissing the Vice Minister of Rites in charge of the matter, a proposal approved by Li Yuan. Of course, Li Yuan wasn't so easily appeased. He felt these people were opposing the emperor, especially since admitting practical learning into the imperial examinations was a new measure. Therefore, dismissing one vice minister wasn't enough; all officials in this line had to be dismissed to appease the scholars. As for the expenses, the Ministry of Rites reimbursed them from the funds allocated by the court.

Ultimately, the money was supposedly repaid, but it wasn't. On paper, it appeared to have been repaid, but there were other transactions involved.

All I can say is, if it were still true!

(End of this chapter)