Eagle-eyed and wolf-watching

Chapter 1660 Kill him and let his head roll!
! Yi Jing, in the Imperial Study
Ye Mingsheng was writing furiously. Yesterday he received a letter from Gao Shen. Gao Shen told Ye Mingsheng about Luobi's current predicament and the Golden Horde's idea of ​​using captives, comprehensive trade, marriage and other measures to alienate Daqian and Luobi.

Gao Shen believed that the evil ambitions of the Golden Horde were already obvious. Although Daqian was at a tactical disadvantage at this time, it must not compromise with the Golden Horde!
Gao Shen believes that the current Khan of the Golden Horde, Habib, is a man of great courage, adaptability, and the image of a hero. Therefore, if he is allowed to defeat Robe and unify the entire grassland now, there will never be peace on the northern border of Daqian during his lifetime!
At the same time, Gao Shen also believed that although the Golden Horde now had the advantage in the war, this did not mean that the Golden Horde had no problems!
Gao Shen believes that Khabib is also under a lot of pressure now!

The war between the Robe and the Cumans has lasted for more than half a year. Such a long period of fighting has affected the production and life of the people on both sides. Moreover, nomadic peoples are all soldiers, which means that the young and middle-aged people of the Cumans are all fighting, and the cattle and sheep at home are being grazed by the elderly, women and children!
Although the elderly, women and children also have labor force, there is still a huge gap in labor force compared to young and middle-aged people!
This also means that the production of the Golden Horde will inevitably be affected. Now in summer, the grasslands have the best grass and water, and the cattle and sheep in the pastoral areas grow meat the fastest. If production is not done well at this time, it will inevitably affect the rations in autumn and winter. Therefore, after fighting for several months in a row, the soldiers of the Golden Horde are now homesick and want to go home to graze and store up rations for autumn and winter...
Therefore, although Habib can suppress the rebellion through his prestige and brutal means, once the war becomes stalemate and the Cuman army cannot make any breakthrough, the pressure within them will be enough for Habib to bear, so now is the time to test the willpower of both sides!
When Ye Mingsheng saw Gao Shen's letter yesterday, he wanted to write a reply to Gao Shen, but to be cautious, Ye Mingsheng thought about it for a day. It was not until now that Ye Mingsheng started writing a reply to Gao Shen!
First of all, Ye Mingsheng supported Gao Shen's idea in principle. The grassland should not allow the Golden Horde to dominate alone. At the same time, Ye Mingsheng also affirmed Gao Shen's achievement in making Dariachi, the Luobei Khan, accept the title of Daqian.

On this basis, Ye Mingsheng indicated to Gao Shen that the Second Army was already on its way north. Ye Mingsheng hoped that Gao Shen would use this opportunity to end the war as soon as possible while preserving Luo Bi's strength. After all, war costs at least three thousand taels of silver a day. At this rate, the one million taels of silver he had just obtained would not last long!
The Golden Horde couldn't afford a war of attrition, and neither could the Great Qian!

After writing the letter, Ye Mingsheng handed it to Ye Cheng and asked him to deliver it to Gao Shen as soon as possible using an express delivery service of 800 miles.

After receiving the letter, Ye Cheng also reported to Ye Mingsheng:
"Your Majesty, Hanlin Academy Bachelor Cao Sheng, Chen Zhijiang is here!"

“Let them in!”

"Yes!"

At Ye Mingsheng's order, two middle-aged scholars came to Ye Mingsheng and paid their respects to him.

"Your Majesty, I, Cao Sheng, and Chen Zhijiang pay my respects to your majesty..."

Upon hearing this, Ye Mingsheng raised his head and waved his hand to signal the two to excuse themselves from the formalities. Then he looked at Chen Zhijiang and said:

"Zhijiang, I haven't seen you for a few days. How come you've gained weight again?"

Chen Zhijiang, who was of large stature, looked a little embarrassed when he heard this, and then he bowed and said:

"Your Majesty, you are joking. I am already losing weight!"

Ye Mingsheng smiled and shook his head. Cao Sheng, Chen Zhijiang, and Jia Gong, who had been demoted to Huainan by him before, were all scholars of the Hanlin Academy and his three think tanks!

Now that Jia Gong has gone to Huainan, he only has these two think tanks left. After a little concern for Cao Sheng and Chen Zhijiang's life, Ye Mingsheng said:

"Today, let's have a final discussion. It's almost September now, and we should come up with a set of rules for the imperial examination. We can't delay it any longer!"

Hearing Ye Mingsheng say this, Cao Sheng spoke without hesitation:

"Your Majesty, the Hanlin Academy has already discussed it. They said they want to unite many students. As long as you officially announce that the knowledge in books such as Kaigong Tianwu and Jiuzhang Suanshu will be included in the imperial examination, they will do something sensitive and unspeakable in front of your palace!"

Ye Mingsheng frowned immediately after hearing this. Noticing this, Cao Sheng also spoke directly:

"Your Majesty, I think the Hanlin Academy is really shameless. They take the respect you give them as a sign of weakness and are becoming more and more rampant. They are no longer ordinary ministers. You cannot be lenient with them!"

After Cao Sheng finished speaking, seeing that Ye Mingsheng did not object, he became even bolder and immediately began to speak:
"Your Majesty, we all know that you are kind-hearted and cannot bear to use harsh measures against them, but how can reforms be achieved without bloodshed?"

"Your Majesty! It's time to make a decision! If you don't teach them a lesson, they won't learn their lesson..."

As Cao Sheng finished speaking, the pot-bellied Chen Zhijiang on the side retorted:

"Master Cao, do you really have to kill him and cause a river of blood to flow?"

"All reforms in every dynasty have required killing people. If we don't kill him, how can we change the law? How can we reform it?"

"Master Cao, I really don't agree with your suggestion. Even if we have to kill people, we should kill chickens to scare the monkeys, not catch them all in one fell swoop. We can't make things bigger!"

"Hmph! Sir Chen, what you said sounds good, but do you have any specific solution?"

Facing Cao Sheng's question, Chen Zhijiang did not answer, but turned to Ye Mingsheng and said:
"I have a plan to solve this dilemma!"

"Oh? Tell me!"

"Your Majesty! I support including knowledge of physics, chemistry, and mathematics in the exam, but I think we must pay attention to the impact!

Although the students in my humble opinion oppose the inclusion of knowledge of physics, chemistry and mathematics such as Kaigong Tianwu and Jiuzhang Suanshu, the most important reason is not because they think these are strange and tricky skills, which will bring disgrace to the civilized world after learning them! "

"The reason most of them are most worried is that they have not learned these aspects. They are worried that if they take the exam now, they will not perform well in these aspects, which will affect their grades and, in turn, their careers!"

“So we can publish the test questions in advance, so that students will be prepared and won’t worry about affecting their grades, and their opposition will immediately weaken…”

As soon as Chen Zhijiang finished speaking, Cao Sheng immediately retorted, "I thought you had some brilliant plan, Master Chen, but it turns out you just took off your pants and farted."

"Since the test questions are announced in advance, why do we need to take the test? How can we select talents for the court by doing this?"

When Chen Zhijiang heard Cao Sheng say that his plan was to take off his pants and fart, he asked back with an annoyed look:

"It's only in recent years that knowledge of physics, chemistry, and mathematics has been popularized in public schools. Most of these students are still traditional scholars. How many of them do you expect to know physics, chemistry, and mathematics?"

Faced with this question, Cao Sheng was somewhat stumped for a moment, and hesitated for two seconds before saying:
"Even if there are few, there are still some, especially in Liaoyang and Youyan, places where public schools were established earlier. Many students in these places have also learned knowledge of mathematics, physics and chemistry!"

"But is this fair to students from other places? Daqian is not just Liaoyang and Youyan! There are also Qilu, Jiyu, Yunbing, Guanzhong, Yongliang, etc!"

"Is there anything absolutely fair in this world? Now that Your Majesty has reopened the imperial examinations, it is already a great favor from heaven!"

"Although there is no such thing as absolute fairness in this world, we should pursue fairness in the imperial examinations!"

Seeing Cao Sheng and Chen Zhijiang arguing endlessly, Ye Mingsheng frowned and scolded:
"stop fighting!"

The two who were about to continue arguing heard Ye Mingsheng speak, and although they felt a little unsatisfied, they both quieted down.

After stopping the two from arguing, Ye Mingsheng pondered for more than ten seconds, then slowly said:
"The contents of the imperial examination include knowledge of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and agronomy. As for the public test questions, they are a bit exaggerated. After all, this is an imperial examination and it is not a joke..."

Hearing Ye Mingsheng say this, Cao Sheng immediately smiled. However, just as he was about to praise Ye Mingsheng's decision, Ye Mingsheng started to speak:
"But what you said about paying attention to the impact is also very important, Zhijiang! The test questions cannot be made public, but the knowledge points can be made public!"

After saying this, Ye Mingsheng looked at Cao Sheng, and Chen Zhijiang ordered:

"Mr. Cao, you are good at studying Kaigong Tianwu, so you can come up with ten questions based on the knowledge points of Kaigong Tianwu. Zhijiang, you can come up with ten questions based on the knowledge points of Jiuzhang Suanshu!"

"Give it to me as soon as you finish it. If there is no problem, we will make this knowledge point public so that students all over the world can learn it. Then I will pick five questions from these twenty!"

Hearing Ye Mingsheng say this, Cao Sheng wanted to say something, but before he opened his mouth, Ye Mingsheng knew what he wanted to say, and immediately waved his hand and said:

"This matter is settled! Don't make any mistakes!"

Cao Sheng was helpless as Ye Mingsheng blocked his words, but since Ye Mingsheng had spoken, he could only agree to it.

After Cao Sheng and Chen Zhijiang left, Ye Mingsheng once again fell into deep thought in the imperial study.

Cao Sheng, like Chu Zhiyi, is a radical in the reform. He always wants to kill people to establish his authority, and then cut the Gordian knot and settle things. Therefore, what he just wanted to say is no different from public knowledge points and public test questions. They are both like taking off pants to fart...

Cao Sheng’s idea makes sense, but for Ye Mingsheng, it is different!

Ye Mingsheng deeply agreed with what Chen Zhijiang said just now. That is, the reason why those students reacted so strongly was probably not because learning these things was degrading, but because they were worried that they had not learned this knowledge, which would affect their grades and careers in the exams!
Therefore, making knowledge points public and allowing them to learn them in advance can effectively reduce their rebellious thoughts!

From the perspective of the examination, in the case of public knowledge points, the impact of adding knowledge such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry on the imperial examination is actually not that big. If those students study the public knowledge points seriously, it will not be a problem to get full marks.

But from a political perspective, the inclusion of knowledge such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry can be said to be the first time since the birth of the imperial examination system!
With this first time, in the next imperial examinations, Ye Mingsheng can gradually increase the proportion of knowledge such as physics, chemistry, and mathematics, thereby guiding Daqian towards modernization!
Of course, Ye Mingsheng knew very well how stubborn those corrupt scholars were. So even though Ye Mingsheng had thought of using public knowledge to reduce the voices of opposition, he knew very well that doing so was still a challenge to the traditional value of "everything is inferior except for reading". Therefore, the opposing memorials from the Censorate and the Hanlin Academy would inevitably fly to the Imperial Study like snowflakes...
And if the memorial is of no use, these people will do sensitive and unspeakable things in front of the palace gate!

In the past, Ye Mingsheng would choose to ignore this matter despite the opposition of many people. However, Ye Mingsheng seemed to feel that he had been too lenient towards these censors and scholars recently!
So this time Ye Mingsheng felt it necessary to do something ruthless. Although he would not kill everyone like Cao Sheng said, it was necessary to kill a few problematic ones to establish his authority. As for the others, they would also be beaten with a stick!
After making the decision, Ye Mingsheng began to think about the questions!

Food is the most important thing for people, so for Daqian, agriculture is the foundation of the country. Any disturbance in agriculture will cause turmoil in the court!
Therefore, it is necessary to ask questions about agriculture!

Ye Mingsheng wanted to ask a short answer question, asking these students to briefly talk about what crops were mainly grown in their hometowns, and to answer from several aspects, including why they planted these crops, the precautions for planting, and how much the harvest from one acre of land could be sold for.

For the second question, Ye Mingsheng decided to give a calculation problem related to food.

For the third question, Ye Mingsheng decided to give a classic chicken and rabbit in the same cage.

The two arithmetic problems tested everyone's calculation ability. As an emperor, Ye Mingsheng felt more and more that it was very necessary to calculate the accounts well.

Nowadays, there are many prefects and county magistrates who leave the accounting to their legal advisors, and many legal advisors take advantage of this to enrich themselves, taking a little here and a little there, and the prefects and county magistrates cannot tell. Therefore, Ye Mingsheng believes that prefects and county magistrates should also have basic accounting skills!
If you can't even understand the account books and do the math, how can you lead the development of a place?

You have to at least know how many people you have, how much rice you have, how much silver you have, these are the most basic...