Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 256 Second Mock Exam
The establishment of the police station gave Yuan Keli a sense of urgency. He knew that if he continued to slow down, many aspects of the power of the Government Affairs Office and the Tingwei Office might be taken away by the Weiwei Office.

For example, many disputes among people are now handled by the police. Those who create quarrels and troubles are directly sentenced to labor corrections and asked to help the health team sweep the floors and collect manure.

This matter may seem small, but if it develops, larger cases will be directly solved by the police. The courts of the Tingwei Department will be affected by this, and their power will be seized by the Weiwei Department.

Yuan Keli even heard that after the implementation of the three guarantees in front of the door, there were far fewer stalls on the street, which also caused dissatisfaction among vendors. Because of this incident, the Weiwei Department has planned to set up commercial streets in some sections of the road, with specially designated stalls for vendors to set up stalls.

This thing sounds good, but the matter in the commercial street is obviously a violation of the powers of the Industrial and Commercial Department. If left unchecked, the power of the Guards Corps will continue to grow.

The current situation forced him to establish the Government Affairs Office and the Tingwei Office and improve the corresponding powers.

This forced Yuan Keli, who had been putting off this matter, to allocate his energy to this matter.

"The yamen in Wanping and Daxing counties have no guts to resist Jin Yiwei."

"We can't rely on them anymore. We must establish a city administrative office as your Majesty said and take over the affairs in the city."

"The Metropolitan Procuratorate will appoint a censor to patrol the city, and while establishing the Imperial Court Office, it will also restrict the power of the Guard Office."

Facing Li Banghua, who had just arrived in Beijing, Yuan Keli said to him.

This was his old colleague, and he recommended him to the emperor after he came to Beijing. Now he finally entered Beijing and took up the post of left deputy censor of the capital, and served as the co-chairman of the Imperial Procuratorate.

After realizing that he was unable to cope with the emperor's offensive and unable to curb the expansion of the power of the Weiwei Administration, Yuan Keli decided to hand over the matter to Li Banghua and put him in charge of the Tingwei Administration.

Li Banghua is a native of Jiangxi. He was trained by Zou Yuanbiao, one of the three kings of the Donglin Party, and is undoubtedly a member of the Donglin Party. However, he was not keen on party struggle. Apart from asking for a gift for his teacher Zou Yuanbiao, he basically did not participate in Donglin Party affairs.

Therefore, after entering Beijing, Li Banghua did not have much contact with the Donglin Party members. Instead, he interacted more with Yuan Keli, a neutral faction.

He is very courageous, has proposed many reform measures long ago, and has the courage to do his job. He did not shirk Yuan Keli's arrangements at all and said:
"I will request your Majesty to appoint a censor to patrol the city."

"It's just a matter of the Third Department of the City. What do you think, Brother Yuan?"

"Do you want to do it or don't you want to do it?"

Yuan Keli frowned when he heard this and said:
"Of course I want to do it. How else would I take on this matter?"

"It's just that His Majesty is too impatient and has created so many new official positions."

"I'm afraid that old problems have not been solved and new problems have arisen."

This is his most contradictory point, and it is also the reason why he is very cautious about the establishment of the three agencies. It is hard to say whether adding officials at will will solve the problem. On the contrary, it may cause the problem of redundant officials.

According to his idea, three offices can be set up, but they should be modeled on the six offices of the county government and staff should be responsible for them. The transition from the county government to the three departments can be smooth and will not cause many twists and turns.

But the emperor's ideas were obviously different from his. Almost starting from scratch, leaving the county government aside.

"In the past, in addition to the Five Cities Military and Horse Department, the affairs in the city were also under the jurisdiction of Daxing and Wanping counties."

"Now, in the name of restructuring the Five-City Army and Horses Division, His Majesty has directly put aside the two counties of Dawan. I'm afraid there will be setbacks."

As he said worriedly, Yuan Keli thought of the tax sharing system that the emperor had asked the Ministry of Household Affairs to implement. If it is officially tried in Shuntianfu, Beizhili, it will cause even greater waves. I don’t know what kind of turmoil it will cause.

The current emperor's steps are really too big. After his initial approval, he turned cautious.

Li Banghua was younger and bolder than him, saying:
"Our Majesty, I think he is very confident."

"The health team, fire brigade, and patrol team have all done a good job and solved many problems."

"If it weren't for this, Brother Yuan wouldn't be under so much pressure."

"We must trust His Majesty and act in accordance with the court's decision."

He had a good impression of the new emperor, Li Banghua said:

"I will take care of the affairs of the Tingwei Department. Brother Yuan will discuss the matters of the Government Affairs Department with other ministries and ask them to send people to assist."

"There's no point worrying, getting things done is the right thing to do."

"In my opinion, what we need to worry about now is not the emergence of new problems, but solving the old problems and selecting excellent officials."

This is his attitude and the reason why he decided to take over the Tingwei Department.

This matter is difficult to handle, but Li Banghua is not afraid. He has served as a local magistrate and a governor of Tianjin. He has rich political experience and is not afraid of these problems.

When Yuan Keli heard his response, he felt relieved a little bit. I feel that I did the right thing by recommending Li Banghua for the job.

Such a person who has the courage to do his job is indeed a good helper to the emperor.

He also agreed with Li Banghua in his heart that getting things done is the right thing to do.

If the Imperial Guard had not done several things in the capital under the emperor's command, would he still be under such great pressure?
If the Government Affairs Office and the Court Office can be built and recognized. Even if there are disturbances at the county government, they can be calmed down.

Therefore, Yuan Keli raised his hands and said:
"Then there's Brother Lao Li!"

"The second Taixue mock exam will be held soon. According to His Majesty, the top 100 candidates will be awarded the ninth rank official position."

"I will select some talents from them to enrich the three departments in the city."

This is an idea he has had for a long time, and it is also the reason why he has been delaying the matter of Sanshu——

I want to select officials from among the candidates and incorporate them into the civil service system.

Unexpectedly, the emperor was so impatient that he made a sudden attack years ago. Let Jinyiwei do several good things in succession, successfully establish the Weiwei Office, and even usurp the power of the Government Affairs Office and the Tingwei Office.

Now, he can only speed up holding mock exams to select talents.

After making up his mind, Yuan Keli quickly agreed with Guo Yunhou to hold Mingfa and Mingshu simulation exams on the 20th and 22nd of the first lunar month.

At this time, many more people came to the capital.

The first examination of the Ming Dynasty examination started on the ninth day of February. Many candidates who wanted to take the examination came to Beijing at the end of the first month.

This year, because the new emperor has ascended to power, more talents have to be recruited, and exams for Mingfa and Mingshu have also been added. Those anxious Juren came to Beijing some time in advance. At this time, many Juren gathered in the capital. After hearing the news about the mock exam, most of these people signed up to take it. I want to be familiar with the exam, and even get a chance to become an official.

Coupled with the participation of Taipei students, the number of people in this mock exam is no less than that of the official exam. Getting into the top 100 is no less difficult than getting into the imperial examination.

This situation scares some people. There are also some people who are happy and think that they have a chance to compete with Jinshi.

Qian Jiazheng, who has been specially granted the rank of Yuanshi and who got the top 100 in the Mingfa mock exam in December and can directly serve as an official, is one of them:
"If I get the top 100 in such an exam and serve as an official in the future, will anyone still criticize me?"

"Although we are not Jinshi, our talents and learning are no less than theirs!"

I am full of heart to compete with those who are good at showing my talent and learning.

We need to make those people realize that they are not inferior to them in talent and learning, but they are just not qualified to take part in the examination, so they are not qualified to be Jinshi.

Wang Lin smiled bitterly and said:
"Brother Qian is very confident, but Brother Yu is not good enough."

"Last time I was lucky enough to get the top 100 in Mingshu. This time it's not guaranteed."

"There are so many talented people in the world, but our first-mover advantage is nothing!"

Relying on the advantage of getting the news first, Wang Lin was prepared for the Mingfa and Mingshu exams, and even achieved the top 100 in Mingshu.

But now that the number of people taking the exam has increased, he has no confidence. Last time, only students from the Imperial College and those from Beijing were able to get into the top 100 in Mingshu. This time it was even more difficult.

This made him doubt whether he would be able to pass the Jinshi examination in the future. Even Mingfa and Mingshu are so difficult. Even if he passes the examination, what chance does he have of passing the examination?
So he already had the idea of ​​becoming an official in his mind. I plan to get the qualifications to be an official based on my top 100 in calculation last time.

However, if you enter the top 100 at a time, you can only enter the official position from the ninth rank. This made him feel really unwilling:
"If you enter the official position from the ninth rank, the grinding period for non-jinshi is another six years, and it will take another thirty-six years to reach the sixth rank, which is the number one scholar. 』

“The promotion is really too slow and there is no future. 』

"It's better to be transferred to military attaché. The training period is five years." 』

When this idea came up, it cannot be said that Wang Lin was not affected by the changes in the capital.

After the Weiwei Office made several big moves and successfully established its prestige in the capital, many people had an impression of the Weiwei Office and wanted to serve in it.

Wang Lin is one of them. He believes that with the newly established Weiwei Department, there will be many opportunities for promotion. As a scribe, he has a lot to offer. As long as you can make contributions, you will be promoted.

Even if no merit is achieved, the five-year exploration period is shorter than six years. When I become an official in the future, I can have a higher grade.

The only thing that worried him was that there were military attachés in the Guards Office. Today's world is dominated by the rich and powerful, and there is no hierarchy at all.

This made him a little hesitant about joining the Guards Agency, wondering whether he should choose this option.

In this tangled psychology, Wang Lin, Qian Jiazheng and others ushered in the second mock exam and entered Shuntian Gongyuan to take this exam.

After the first mock exam, this exam was much more formal and the questions were more reasonable. On the basis of referring to the Tang and Song Dynasties, there are new innovations.

At Zhu Youjian's request, many of the questions in the Mingfa Examination were objective questions with clear answers. Those who do not understand the laws and regulations cannot write nonsense.

This is especially true for the Minsheng Examination, where most questions have correct answers. Those who give random answers will be useless if they write.

This makes the test results undoubtedly more objective. Many candidates believe that this kind of exam is fair and depends more on personal strength.

The two subjects, Mingfa and Mingshu, began to be recognized. Let some people who think they have unappreciated talents have the idea of ​​​​devoting themselves.

After receiving these feedbacks, Zhu Youjian nodded secretly in his mind, thinking that Yuan Keli and Guo Yunhou did a good job in establishing the Mingfa and Mingcalculation examinations. In the future, the imperial court will be able to obtain talents and professional officials from these two subjects.

At the same time, he also thought about setting up the Mingfa and Mingshu departments to be more objective, and implemented a hundred-point system with reference to later generations:

"The results of the 100-point system are clear at a glance and are relatively more fair. 』

"The Jinshi in the Ming Dynasty were admitted based on the three volumes of the North and South Middle Schools. If the scores of the admitted Jinshi are too different, there may be disputes." 』

"The conditions for implementing the 100-percent system are not yet met. 』

The same test question is based on the three papers of North and South Secondary School. If the admission score for a certain paper is very low, it will make other papers feel unfair.

This is the reason why Zhu Youjian did not implement the 100-percent system, believing that the conditions were not met. Unless he gives different questions to the North and South Secondary School 3 papers and then conducts admissions.

Just like the college entrance examination in later generations, in order to avoid disputes over scores, unified national papers are used less and less, and many provinces have their own test papers.

In this way, the high admission scores in a certain province and the low admission scores in a certain province can also be explained differently by the test papers.

However, adopting this method in the examination will undoubtedly cause controversy. So after Zhu Youjian thought about it, he decided to keep it vague now and implement the hundred-point system later.

In short, it is necessary to increase the distinction between Mingfa, Mingshu and Jinshi and implement misaligned competition. Use more objective and fair examination methods to attract talent investment.

After the mock exam, the regulations of the Ming Law Department and the Ming Arithmetic Department were presented by Yuan Keli and Guo Yunhou.

Wen Tiren, who had just arrived in Beijing and served as the Minister of Rites, also submitted the examination regulations and strictly enforced examination room discipline.

After Zhu Youjian approved it, he began to think about who to appoint as the examiner for this examination.

According to the established rules in recent years, the examiner is usually the deputy minister of the cabinet. This can prevent the first assistant from having too much power and allow the second assistant to develop his wings.

Zhu Youjian had no intention of changing this practice and decided to let the second assistant serve as the examiner. But there is now controversy over who is the secondary assistant.

The current cabinet includes Huang Liji, Shi Fenglai, Li Guopu, Zhang Ruitu, Zheng Yiwei, Xu Guangqi, Han Xu and Sun Chengzong.

Before Han Xu resurrected, Shi Fenglai was undoubtedly the second assistant. But after Han Xu resurrected, Zhu Youjian did not let him be the chief minister in the way of adding Bi Zhengmin. Instead, he was tied with Shi Fenglai and Li Guopu.

With Han Xu's qualifications, he would undoubtedly be ranked ahead of Shi Fenglai. It can be said that he is now the second assistant and should be the examiner.

However, Zhu Youjian was wary of the Donglin Party, fearing that the Donglin Party might revive or even integrate scholars after getting fresh blood. Therefore, in his heart, he did not want Han Xu to serve as the examiner and strengthen the Donglin Party.

After thinking about it, Zhu Youjian decided to appoint Shi Fenglai as the examiner while Han Xu was not in Beijing. Let Yuan Keli and Guo Yunhou serve as deputy examiners, responsible for the law and calculation subjects.

At the same time, he selected some old Hanlin officials from the Hanlin Academy and asked them to serve as reviewers. Avoid officials who are too young and use the competition to cultivate their wings.

(End of this chapter)