Quickly wear it and insist on being an old man forever

Chapter 342 I Really Want to Live Another 14 Years ()

Although there were undercurrents and discussions in private, after all, Bai Sheng did not officially issue an order, and everything was just their speculation. So the next day, no one actually submitted a memorial to specifically point out this matter. All the ministers were waiting to see the results of the selection of talented women, and whether the selected talented women would serve as officials in the court or as ladies-in-waiting in the palace.

If they all entered the palace to serve as court ladies, then it would naturally be a false alarm and no need to worry about it. If they entered the court to serve as officials, then the original impeachment plan would naturally have to be implemented.

Bai Sheng was very clear about this.

But we are still moving forward according to the original plan.

During this period, the entire Divine Capital was relatively peaceful on the surface, except for Princess Taiping's residence. Because Princess Taiping was both the chief examiner and the examiner, even though Bai Sheng sent many female officials and she also had many confidants to help her with the examination, in order to ensure fairness, she insisted on reviewing every test paper.

Then within three hours, I started to feel a little irritable.

After a fit of irritability, he often needed to recite scriptures for half an hour, or go to the ancestral hall to see Xue Shao's tablet, before he could calm down and continue reviewing the papers while picking out the excellent ones.

This went on for about half a month.

She finally finished marking all the papers.

There are four categories in total. One category is completely unqualified and can go home directly. These candidates mainly fail the fill-in-the-blank questions on the Four Books and Five Classics and arithmetic, and their policy essays at the end are also lackluster. They can all be classified into this category and are unqualified.

The second category is the Four Books and Five Classics or arithmetic, or the Four Books and Five Classics and arithmetic. Those who have excellent results in all of them but are not very good at the subsequent policy essays are classified as the second class.

The third class is that you can directly ignore the Four Books and Five Classics and arithmetic questions in the front, and focus on the policy essay content in the back. As long as there is one question that is well written, it can be classified as the first class.

Because the policy essay is good, at least it is not the kind of bookish thing, at least it can be considered that you have opened your eyes to the world.

Have some understanding of a certain part of the situation.

The fourth category is amazing. Not only do they do well in arithmetic questions and the Four Books and Five Classics in the front, but they also answer more than one or two questions in the policy essays in the back. Instead, they can respond to most of the questions with substance and are definitely not talking nonsense.

This is a special grade, equivalent to the first place in the imperial examination.

Only four papers met this standard.

Those who were not qualified naturally did not need to submit, so in the end, only 1,768 papers reached Bai Sheng's hands, of which there were two special prizes, and there were only 43 first prizes. Most of the rest could only be said to have a good foundation, but their understanding of the court, the border, the world situation, and the people's livelihood was negligible, or much of their understanding was wrong.

In this way, they wrote the policy paper.

Naturally it is difficult to qualify.

After Bai Sheng reviewed these papers twice, he specially selected 73 papers from the second class and promoted them to the first class. It's not that Princess Taiping had any problems with the paper marking. Their essays were indeed not correct, but Bai Sheng could see from their wrong essays that some of them were very bold, some could break the secular conventions and think of things that others had not thought of.

In Bai Sheng's opinion, these are more important than knowledge.

Bai Sheng has no shortage of knowledge. If he doesn't know something, he can just learn it or teach it. However, it is not so easy to change one's character and courage.

Bai Sheng had never expected to select talents who could be used immediately from the existing talented women. Rather than selecting them to serve as officials in the court, it would be more accurate to say that he was selecting some reserve forces. They would need to be trained before they could officially take up their posts. Some of them did not have much ability or knowledge, and might even need to be trained for several years.

Therefore, character and courage are naturally important.

The next step, of course, was to officially announce the selection results to the world, and clearly state that the second class could enter the Shendu Women's School, the first class would be granted the same Jinshi status, half would enter Princess Taiping's mansion, and half would enter the palace as officials, and the four special class would be granted the same Jinshi status and the position of seventh-rank female officials in the Purple Palace.

Cooperate with the internal minister to review and classify memorials.

When this decree came out, all the civil and military officials in the court were a little confused. For a moment, they didn't know whether they should submit the impeachment letters they had prepared, because this decree was quite borderline and touched their bottom line.

But it didn't go too deep, just brushed past it.

There is no doubt that those talented women who have been selected are currently just female officials, but granting them the title of Jinshi or Tongjinshi will undoubtedly make many people dissatisfied. However, it is also well known that neither Tongjinshi nor Jinshi are officials, especially in today's era when a large number of officials rely on family connections to enter the government.

Granting the status of a Jinshi is not a heinous act.

For a time, many officials were struggling with the question of whether it was worth going against the current emperor for such a small matter.

Do you want to make a big deal out of this?

And if the situation gets out of hand, will it be difficult to resolve?
Bai Sheng did this, of course, not because he was afraid of them, but mainly because the talented women selected in the first batch were indeed not very ambitious and could hardly shoulder important responsibilities. Pushing them out at this time would not only be troublesome, but would also be a bit like using them as cannon fodder. Therefore, Bai Sheng's idea was to keep them for a few years and train them a little.

It is definitely much easier to cultivate a group of well-educated and cultured people than to teach them from scratch or from illiterate people.

The speed will also be much faster.

There should be only four special ones who can really be used by her in a short period of time. To be frank, judging from their assessment results and strategic level, their abilities in all aspects and even their insights are not inferior to Shangguan Wan'er, and they are even much stronger than Shangguan Wan'er.

Shangguan Wan'er may be good in talent, but she is not good in other aspects, especially in political struggle. In history, during the Tanglong coup, she even hoped to draft Li Xian's will and make Li Xian's son Li Chongmao the emperor in order to save her life. But what was the situation at that time? That was when Li Longji had already entered the palace to carry out the massacre. Could it be that he really carried out the coup just to kill Empress Wei?

In the end, he died tragically on the spot.

Princess Taiping was not that smart. She actually thought that she could compete with her nephew for the throne because of her meritorious service in the Tanglong coup. How could Li Dan, as a brother, treat his sister better than his own son? She was played like a fool by the father and son. At that time, she had no other way out except to force the emperor to abdicate, and she was still engaged in political struggles.

The political struggles in the court are of no use.

In the end, it all comes down to who is more ruthless and who lives and who dies.

It is precisely because his daughter and Shangguan Wan'er, who is known as the female prime minister around him, are not very reliable, at least they cannot meet Bai Sheng's requirements, so Bai Sheng will specially organize a selection of talented women to continue looking for suitable talents.

The four who were selected as special prizes this time.

All that's left is a probation period.

As long as they passed the assessment, they would be given important positions. Of course, Bai Sheng had not forgotten what he had promised Princess Taiping. The day after the results of the talent selection were announced, he issued an imperial decree to vindicate Xue Shao.

As for the result, others may not be very clear.

But Bai Sheng clearly saw that her daughter Princess Taiping cried bitterly while holding Xue Shao's tablet. Her eldest son, second son and two daughters with the surname Xue also came back and cried bitterly, and even wanted to hold another funeral to commemorate him.

However, Princess Taiping calmly stopped him. It was already good enough that Xue Shao could be rehabilitated while her mother was still alive. If she held a grand funeral, wouldn't that be a slap in her mother's face? As she didn't want to cause any trouble, she could only try to persuade her children to keep a low profile.

Let this matter be quietly exposed.

……

A few days later, after private consultations, the civil and military officials finally decided to impeach Bai Sheng, because they felt that Bai Sheng was slowly nibbling away at his power. If he just skirted the line every time and did not object every time he went a little too far, he would inevitably go more and more excessive in the future.

First there was an empress, and then there was a female prime minister.

After the female prime minister, the next step is the selection of talented women. Some of these selected women have the status of Tong Jinshi and Jinshi. As for the future, you should know that theoretically, both Tong Jinshi and Jinshi can be appointed as officials.

So at the moment, it seems that those first-class talented women are just female officials and have not really entered the court as officials.

But they have already obtained tickets to serve as officials in the court.

It was precisely because they thought of this during the private negotiations, and felt that Bai Sheng would go even further in the future, that they decided that they could no longer tolerate it and must not give in an inch.

"Great Celestial Venerable, the selection of talented women is just a selection of talented women. How can we grant them the title of Jinshi or Jinshi of the same origin? This is unfair to all the scholars in the world. Are those scholars who have failed the exams many times really not as talented as those who passed the selection this time? How can this be fair?"

"I hope His Majesty will revoke his order, cancel the so-called Tongjinshi and Jinshi origin of those women, and restore fairness to the imperial examination. Don't let the students of the world feel disappointed!"

A newly promoted prime minister and minister of rites came forward and spoke specially when Bai Sheng was attending court.

However, the angle they chose really confused Bai Sheng. Fairness? They even had the nerve to tell her it was fair. How could the imperial examination be fair now?
"How dare you talk to me about fairness?

Is it fair that women are not allowed to take part in the imperial examinations, or is it fair that those who enter the officialdom through family connections do not have to take the imperial examinations? Or is it fair that during the imperial examinations, operations such as circulating the examination papers can be carried out, and the names of the examinees do not have to be covered?
Well, since you two mentioned the fairness of the imperial examination.

That really needs to be changed!"

"Wan'er, now draft an imperial decree to abolish all non-imperial examination channels for entering the government, including those for family background, recommendation, etc., and only retain the imperial examination. At the same time, reform the imperial examination.

From now on, you are not allowed to circulate the scroll anymore.

If there is any more submission of papers, it will be considered cheating.

All the citizens of our Great Zhou, regardless of gender, age, or background, can take part in the imperial examinations as long as they or their family are not criminals, since you want fairness.

Then let's just be fair to the end!"

Originally, Bai Sheng planned to proceed step by step and take it slow, but he had already prepared corresponding plans, including how to reform and improve the imperial examination system and how to make it relatively fair.

It doesn’t hurt to take it out now.

Bai Sheng's reaction, and the imperial edict he immediately asked Shangguan Wan'er to draft, caught all the civil and military officials off guard. They had thought that the current emperor might be unwilling to compromise, but they had never thought that the current emperor would do this. How could he not play by the rules?

Can't we just simply stick to the facts?
It can be said that Bai Sheng's actions, especially his skillful approach in coming up with the reform plan for the imperial examination, made them feel like they were being tricked. Such a perfect reform plan for the imperial examination obviously could not have been thought up on a whim, it must have been planned for a long time.

This was, of course, followed by even more intense opposition.

Everyone ignored the memorials that had been prepared earlier. One said that the imperial examination system could not be changed, another said that merchants must not be allowed to take the imperial examinations. There were also some people who thought that abolishing the system of family ties would be unfair to the children of meritorious officials.

Let’s put it this way, everything Bai Sheng did before could only be considered as skirting the line. Only the imperial edict that Shangguan Wan’er had just drafted really touched upon the core of their interests.

Not to mention the Tang Dynasty, even in the Song Dynasty when the imperial examination system was at its peak, entering the government through family connections was still a relatively important way to become an official. It was just that at that time it was very difficult to achieve high-ranking positions such as prime minister through family connections.

Compared to the imperial examination system, which required talented people from generation to generation to ensure the long-term prosperity of a family, entering the officialdom through family connections was undoubtedly safer and more reliable. Even if a family did not have many talented people in one or two generations, it would not decline quickly. As long as there were talented people in the next one or two generations, the family would still be prosperous.

But if there is no family background to enter the officialdom, if one or two generations have no one who passes the exam, the family will quickly decline.

Once a family completely declines and becomes a poor family.

It will be difficult to get promoted again.

Just as it is difficult for dynasties to revive, the same is true for aristocratic families. They either maintain their prosperity or simply collapse. It is very rare for them to be able to prosper again after their decline, like Liu Xiu.

"I have made up my mind. If you are against it, you can stand on the left. I am preparing to dispatch some people to develop Lingnan and other places. You can go there and be the pioneers."

The reason why the Han and Tang dynasties were able to prosper, apart from the clichés such as wise rulers, the most important thing was that the Han and Tang dynasties were in a warm period. The entire north was relatively warm, with lush vegetation, and the emperor would not have messed around.

It is actually very difficult for the world to become chaotic.

As for the so-called Anshi Rebellion, alas, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang had some responsibility, but the end of the warm period was also an important factor. The Yellow River froze that year and it snowed in many places. Before that, there was rarely any record of snow in Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, and some winters had no snow at all.

If Bai Sheng wants to live for 500 years, he will definitely have to go through this transformation. Operations such as climbing science and technology and political clarity can indeed help him get through that crisis, but it is undoubtedly more appropriate to find ways to move the entire political center to the south and further develop to the south. The development of Lingnan is the top priority in the future.

The civil and military officials in the court were really bright when they got some sunshine. They hadn't killed many people recently, but they became active again. Of course, Bai Sheng still didn't plan to kill anyone. After all, the population was small, so her plan was to kill anyone who was disobedient or ignorant.

The entire family was exiled to Lingnan.

When Lingnan is full one day, we will move to places further south, such as Qiongzhou and Nanyue.