The Great Arcanist Who Traveled Through the World of American Variety Shows.

Chapter 422: Exploring Hexi

Although the imperial examination system at this time had undergone reforms during the Tang Dynasty, it still had many drawbacks.

For example, the imperial examination system at that time used an anonymous method, which meant that the examinee's native place, name, etc. could be seen on the test paper by everyone who examined the test paper.

In addition, candidates need to submit their papers before taking the exam. The so-called submission of papers means to send your articles and poems to the dignitaries through connections. After reading them, those dignitaries are willing to help you submit your papers and display your articles.

This scroll is officially recognized. It is also one of the ways for officials to manipulate the imperial examination. Without the scroll, it is basically impossible to get on the list.

The imperial examination system of the Zhou Dynasty continued the system of the Tang Dynasty.

This kind of imperial examination system is too easy to be corrupted by favoritism and is not fair to the candidates at all. If Richard wants to reform the system, the imperial examination system must undergo strict and major changes.

As a national talent selection ceremony, it concerns the future of the imperial court. This imperial examination must be fair! Fair! It must be fucking fair!

There are too few opportunities for ordinary people to improve their social class, so such an important channel as the imperial examination must be fair!
With the support of Guo Rong, Richard's reform of the imperial examination system was rapidly promoted. First, the reform of the imperial examination system was issued to all states and counties, and people were ordered to post it on the bulletin board. At the same time, officials were sent to all villages to inform them in person.

Just this one thing is not easy to achieve. After all, the emperor is far away and you don’t know whether those officials have gone or not.

Therefore, Richard also dispatched a large number of inspection officials to conduct inspections in various prefectures and counties. Once there was a place where the message was not delivered or was delivered incorrectly, all officials in the prefecture and county would be punished.

At the same time, all states and counties began to set up state schools and county schools, and Richard also began to distribute the books printed in the workshop to all states and counties across the country.

Each state and county school will be distributed several hundred books, and the rest will be sold at low prices in various states and counties.

At the same time, the workshop is still printing these books in large quantities. As long as the number of prints is large enough, the cost will continue to drop.

After the reform of the imperial examination system, Guo Rong and Li Cha began to reform the Jiedushi system. Jiedushi were first assigned in large numbers by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, Li Longji.

At that time, the Tang Dynasty had a vast territory. In order to give the border towns enough autonomy to deal with the enemy's attack, Li Longji decided to appoint Jiedushi. Jiedushi was originally a military commander who was in charge of commanding troops and controlling dispatch in unimportant areas. Later, he also served as a Yingtianshi for farming, and later he was given the title of Fangchaoshi. He was in charge of the three political affairs of the military, the people, and the finance.

In the later period, the Jiedushi became a local lord. They could recruit soldiers, collect taxes, manage the local area, and appoint officials. It can be said that they were almost the same as a small imperial court.

Under such a system, the Jiedushi naturally became more powerful.

Now that the Zhou Kingdom wants to unify the world, the power of the Jiedushi naturally needs to be weakened, otherwise it won't be long before the Great Zhou will fall into the rebellion of the feudal lords again.

After some discussion, Richard and Guo Rong began to restrict the power of the Jiedushi.

Previously, through the salt-drawn system, Guo Rong had taken back the rights to the army's logistics and food, and the same was true for the Jiedushi. All food, fodder, and military equipment needed to be allocated uniformly by the court.

Next, Guo Rong took advantage of the recovery of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun and the increase in his prestige to begin to strip away the civil power of the Jiedushi. The Jiedushi in various places could no longer interfere in civil affairs, and the power to appoint officials in various prefectures and counties was taken back by the imperial court.

The number of Jiedushi in the Zhou Dynasty was already very small, and at this time, it was no longer so sensitive to promote the weakening of the Jiedushi's authority.

Moreover, with the strength of the Central Imperial Army and his current prestige, the Jiedushi did not dare to resist. The first person to be ordered to be deprived of the power of civil affairs and logistics was Songzhou Jiedushi Zhao Kuangyin.

Then Zhao Kuangyin was transferred to Yangzhou to guard against Southern Tang. Since Guo Rong was not dead, Zhao Kuangyin naturally did not dare to rebel and could only go to Yangzhou obediently.

After dealing with the Songzhou Jiedushi, Guo Rong revoked the Jiedushi's financial power and no longer allowed him to collect taxes. Instead, the imperial court collected taxes uniformly.

Other Jiedushi also had their financial power stripped away, and finally the Jiedushi only had the power to mobilize troops. At the same time, because the Zhou Dynasty was stable internally, the Jiedushi who were no longer in the border towns began to be abolished and replaced by Duzhishi.

The Duzhishi was responsible for reclaiming wasteland and establishing farmlands. Part of the original army was disbanded and given land to cultivate, while the rest was transferred to Beijing for training.

In the end, except for a few Jiedushi such as Li Yun who was responsible for the defense of Youzhou against Khitan and Northern Han, all other Jiedushi were dismissed.

The Jiedushi system will gradually be completely abolished after this, and the border troops will no longer have the right to recruit soldiers, collect taxes, and appoint officials.

Li Chongjin and Han Tong led 30,000 infantry and cavalry to recapture Hexi. At this time, most of Hexi was occupied by the Ganzhou Uighur tribe, while Liangzhou was controlled by local tyrants. Liangzhou was still nominally the governor of Hexi.

The post of Hexi Jiedushi, which Zhang Yichao had always dreamed of, was casually handed over to thousands of soldiers in Huizhou by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Zhen. Zhang Yichao led the Guiyi Army to recapture Liangzhou and opened up the road back to Chang'an from Hexi. As a result, the Chang'an court directly ordered the Guiyi Army to give up Liangzhou and handed it over to the Huizhou Army, and granted it the title of Hexi Jiedushi.

Then he supported the Ganzhou Uighurs, who had few weapons and armors, and occupied Ganzhou. He was also very considerate and rewarded them with thousands of sets of armors and bows and arrows, so that these Uighurs could deal with the Guiyi Army.

The Guiyi Army, which originally occupied a thousand miles of land and had millions of Han people, was directly torn to pieces.

Li Chongjin and Han Tong led 30,000 infantry and cavalry to Liangzhou. The local forces in Liangzhou did not dare to resist and immediately surrendered. At this time, the situation in Liangzhou was already unstable. Because of years of war and the chaos of the former Tang court, the number of Han people in Liangzhou was less than one-third.

The area outside the city has been occupied by nomadic peoples such as the Dangxiang Wenmo. There were originally hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land outside Liangzhou City, but now only tens of thousands of acres are left, and the rest has become pasture for the nomadic peoples.

Seeing this scene, Li Chongjin and Han Tong were furious and immediately commanded the army to attack these daring Hu people.

Thirty thousand infantry and cavalry are a decisive force even in the Central Plains, let alone in the Hexi area.

Thirty thousand infantry and cavalry swept through and directly defeated the Wenmo and Dangxiang people. In one battle, they beheaded tens of thousands of them and captured tens of thousands of Wenmo and Dangxiang people. They forced the Wenmo and Dangxiang tribes to come and seek peace.

Then, Han Tong followed Guo Rong's order to register these Wenmo and Dangxiang people as civilians, and then recruited the best and strongest men in their tribes to join the army. At the same time, he ordered all tribal leaders to send their sons to Tokyo Bianliang.

Those tribal leaders did not dare to resist at all. Facing the oppression of 30,000 troops, they could only agree. At this time, the Wenmo tribes were not actually real Hu people. Many of the Wenmo tribes were Han slaves who rebelled and gathered here during the collapse of Tubo.

The ancestors of these people were mainly descendants of the Hexi Jiedushi and his generals, as well as some descendants of the Liangzhou Turks. However, because of the actions of the former Tang Dynasty, these people were unwilling to return to the Tang Dynasty, so they called themselves Wenmo.

Guo Rong's orders to Li Chongjin and Han Tong clearly stated that they should surrender these people. Therefore, after defeating these Wenmo tribes, Han Tong began to restore the Han surnames of these Wenmo people and changed them all to Han names. He required them to tie their hair up, wear right-side lapels, and return to Han customs.

Under the pressure of the army, most of the Wenmo people changed back to Chinese names, tied their hair up, wore right-side lapels, and spoke Chinese again.

Next, Guo Rong will move these Wenmo people to Youzhou, Hebei to fill the local population, and then draw people from Guanzhong to go to Liangzhou to enrich the local population.

Make the number of Han people exceed the number of local Hu people as soon as possible.

At the same time, after recovering Liangzhou, the Western Expedition Army set out again, this time attacking the Ganzhou Huihe. After receiving support from the Former Tang Dynasty, the Ganzhou Huihe expanded rapidly, and their strength was almost the same as that of the Guiyi Army.

At this time, the Ganzhou Huihe had occupied Ganzhou and Suzhou, forcing the Guiyi Army to retreat to Guazhou and Shazhou, with a population of more than 300,000. It can be said that they were very powerful in the Hexi area.

Of course, these Huihe tribes looked powerful, but they were nothing compared to the Western Expedition Army. The Western Expedition Army defeated the Wenmo and Dangxiang people and directly eliminated 30,000 cavalry as vassal troops.

The total number of troops was 60,000, and when the Ganzhou Uighurs saw the army coming, they conscripted all male adults, so that the total number was less than 100,000.

Facing the Western Expedition Army, although the Ganzhou Huihe had 100,000 men, half of them were old and weak, and the remaining number of people wearing armor was less than 10,000. Facing the 60,000 Western Expedition Army, they could not gain any advantage.

Li Chongjin and Han Tong directly ordered 30,000 Wenmo and Dangxiang cavalry on the flank to attack. The Wenmo and Dangxiang cavalry were only about the same as the Ganzhou Uighur cavalry.

Han Tong personally led 10,000 cavalrymen to attack the weak points of Ganzhou Huihe from the right wing, and defeated Ganzhou Huihe in one fell swoop. Then the army pressed forward, and Ganzhou Huihe was defeated with heavy casualties.

Immediately afterwards, Li Chongjin led his army to Ganzhou. The Uighurs were not good at defending the city, and Ganzhou was soon captured. The Uighurs in Ganzhou had no choice but to surrender.

After the Ganzhou Uighurs were annihilated, the Guiyi Army was reunited with the Central Plains.

After ordering him to rest, Guo Rong decided to continue the westward expedition and open up the Western Regions.

At the same time, Richard began to carry out drastic reforms in the Zhou Kingdom. He taught thousands of disciples. After more than a year of study, these disciples learned a lot of experience in local governance. Then Richard began to appoint these disciples to official positions.

These disciples who had been taught by Richard were assigned to various places, and the central government's control over the local areas was immediately enhanced. Richard replaced a large number of local tyrants and took back control of the county from them.

After taking control of the county, the system that Richard had previously implemented could be truly implemented.

After these people arrived at the place, the first thing they did was to distribute land to the people and encourage them to reclaim wasteland.

(End of this chapter)