A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 940: The selection of officials is based on what they need, and the result is the righteousness of the predecessors
December 3, Year 1 of the Dragon Era

As the bell rang, a day-long official selection examination finally came to an end at Zhengzhou Provincial School.

Under the supervision of the three people in charge of invigilating the examination: Bai Yanzhang, the academician of Xuanwu Army, Xia Quan, the academician of Zhengzhou, and Shi Shangzhi, the chief academician.

The school officials from the prefectures and counties who were selected collected the test papers of the 532 students who came to take the examination in order.

After the test papers were collected, the students bowed respectfully to the three teachers, and slowly left the examination room after the three left.

As the gate of the academy opened, relatives who had been waiting outside for a long time rushed in, looking for their students who were taking the exam.

Because the sun is about to set, most of the students from each county will stay in the state capital for one night and return to the county town tomorrow.

The results will be out in about three days, and who has passed the exam and who has not will be announced through the state and county schools.

Therefore, after taking the exam, students of the county school would not stay in the state school, but would go directly back to the county seat to wait for the results.

Liu Fansheng followed the crowd out of the academy. As he was a state student, he already had a place to live, so he went straight to his home which was not far away.

"Fan Sheng, how did you do on the exam?"

On the way, the family member sent to take care of him asked anxiously.

"The results haven't come out yet, so I don't know, but it should be pretty good."

The tribesman breathed a sigh of relief, and then seemed to have thought of something, and comforted him: "It's okay, this year is only the first year, there are still four years to go."

You know, because of Liu Fansheng's status as a student, many fields of the Liu clan were registered under his name so that he could enjoy tax-free treatment, which made the other four clans envious.

Because of this, the person who is most concerned about Liu Fansheng's future is not himself, but the tribesman like the one in front of him who is enjoying his protection.

But Liu Fansheng was also happy with this, as both sides got what they needed.

The clansmen who registered under his name needed to pay him a certain amount of land rent every year, but it was definitely lower than that paid by the government and other wealthy families.

The clansmen enjoyed his tax-free privileges, and Liu Fansheng enjoyed the rent and conveniences they provided.

This allowed him to study in the state without having to worry about matters at home.

If one wants to continue to maintain this privilege, there is only one way, which is to become an official.

In this way, the tax-free privilege of a certain amount of land could be maintained until Liu Fansheng was dismissed from office, died, or another student or official was born in the Liu family.

On the third day, the government announced the results, and Liu Fansheng was still reviewing his lessons at home.

However, the Liu family members could not wait any longer and went to the provincial school to inquire about the news for him early in the morning.

When Liu Fansheng was immersed in the words of sages and classic books, there was suddenly a commotion outside the door.

I saw a member of the Liu family rushing into the house excitedly, shouting:

"Master Fansheng has passed the exam, and the principal has asked you to go to the provincial school to receive congratulations."

The noise was so loud that all the neighbors were shocked. They immediately gathered at Liu Fansheng's door and kept congratulating him.

The Liu family members looked proud and distributed some copper coins on behalf of Liu Fansheng, and then went to the provincial school amid congratulations.

The reason why the Liu clan members changed their address to "Master" was because from today onwards, they would completely rely on Liu Fansheng for food.

Unlike before, when they were just students, after five years they no longer enjoyed any privileges, so they naturally did not need to be so flattering.

When he arrived at the provincial school, Liu Fansheng quickly found Yang Lu, who was looking very proud, and the two congratulated each other.

Looking around, there were about a dozen people in the provincial school who passed the exam and were appointed as officials.

He understood that this was by no means the norm, but the exception.

Firstly, the provincial school was newly established, and the students enrolled were all old students like him who had immersed themselves in classics for several years, so the pass rate was naturally high.

The two heard that the battle of Xuzhou had ended, and a large number of officials in Xuzhou, Suzhou and Sizhou had been dismissed, and officials were urgently needed to fill the gap. For various reasons, this examination was relatively relaxed.

He was sure that next year or even the year after, the number of people who passed would decrease year by year.

In the academy, not only Liu Fansheng and Yang Lu, but everyone else was congratulating each other. After all, from today onwards, they would be colleagues, but they just didn't know where they would be assigned.

"The academic director and the chief priest are here."

As someone reminded them, Liu Fansheng and others quickly lined up and quietly watched the group of people coming in.

The first one was the head of Zhengzhou’s academic officials, Xia Quan.

The next in line was Shi Shangzhi, the chief academic officer who was in charge of the affairs of the provincial school and taught students.

After that came several instructors and teaching assistants.

Because Xia Quan was the fourth-rank official in Zhengzhou, he was in charge of seven county schools and one provincial school in the state.

Therefore, it was impossible for him to do everything personally, so he needed the chief priest to take charge of the specific teaching tasks of the provincial school on his behalf.

As for the county school, there is no need for the position of chief priest.

A county school has at most a hundred students, and with the assistance of several instructors and teaching assistants, the county instructor can still manage it.

Therefore, the Jijiu was considered a subordinate official of the Xuezheng.

Shi Shangzhi was recruited by Xia Quan himself from the Bianliang Academy. He was an unsuccessful teacher in the Bianliang Academy.

"All students are great. More than a dozen of them were able to pass the exam this year. This shows that Zhengzhou is full of talented people." Xia Quan was happy when he looked at the dozen or so students below.

Zhengzhou is a new annex to the Xuanwu Army system, but the number of students who were appointed as officials this year is second only to the four prefectures of Bian, Song, Hao and Ying.

Including the five or six people or two or three people from each county, there will be more than 40 people who pass the exam in Zhengzhou this year.

There are more than ten more than in Huazhou, and these are all his political achievements.

The governor of Zhengzhou even summoned him specially, praised him, and said that the governor was very happy and asked him to do a good job.

After praising him a few more times, Xue Zheng waved to the side.

An official came over with several documents in his hand, which were the official appointment documents for everyone.

Because Bai Yi served as the governor of ten states and had the power to appoint and dismiss officials in charge of the ten states, he only needed to report to the court and could place local officials at will.

This is what the military governors all over the world did.

Generally speaking, the court would not interfere.

If the imperial court suddenly sent down a Jiedushi or a governor, it meant that the vassal state had begun to decline and the imperial court had begun to reduce its power.

"Yang Lu is appointed as the eighth-rank military officer of Xuzhou Sibing."

"Liu Fansheng is granted the 8th rank of County Magistrate of Pei County, Xuzhou."

After the appointment was completed, Xia Quan looked at the people who were surprised and spoke again:
"You are lucky. The military government is in need of talents at this time. At the same time, Xuzhou has experienced a major change and many officials have been imprisoned. That is why the military government has rewarded you generously."

"I hope that you will serve the emperor loyally and take care of the people after you take office, and don't bring disgrace to the reputation of Zhengzhou Prefecture School."

"Follow the right path."

Liu Fansheng knew very well that Xue Zheng was right and that he was able to rise to a high position today.

In addition to the Xuanwu Military Government's unconventional selection of talented people, there were also the predecessors in Xuzhou who used their flesh and blood relatives to vacate official positions for themselves and others.

In a restaurant in Zhengzhou, a dozen new officials who were about to leave gathered together and clinked their glasses:
"Respect the generosity of Xuzhou seniors."

(End of this chapter)