Super Cultivation System of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 814 Strange Coincidence
In the blink of an eye, nearly ten days passed.

Liu He had been suppressing the case of Dameng killing Feng Luan, and only allowed the court judge to detain Dameng in prison, without torture or interrogation. He also had his own single room, and his three meals a day were the same as usual, either delivered by Cai Wenji, or by Cai Yong's men, or by imperial meals from the palace. Liu He and Zhang Yu even went to visit him in prison twice.

Although Da Meng didn't know what the prison was, he was naturally unwilling to leave his wife and son. More than a dozen jailers couldn't hold him down, so Liu He went to the prison and coaxed him into temporarily calming down.

During this period of time, the ministers held many court meetings, but surprisingly, no one mentioned this matter again. Since they did not mention it, Liu He naturally did not bother to mention it either.

He had originally planned to hold a 30th birthday party for himself and use it as an opportunity to grant amnesty to the people. But now that Wang Yun had said that Da Meng was guilty of an unforgivable crime, he had no intention of holding a birthday party. Although Xun Yu, Xun You, Cui Jun and others had put forward many rebuttals in the past few days, they all had some omissions, so Liu He was naturally not very satisfied.

Fortunately, Feng Fang and others did not urge him, so Liu He just let it go. Anyway, as long as he did not issue an order to pardon Da Meng and did not give others an opportunity to use him, those ministers and families would not dare to do anything to embarrass the court.

On this day, when Liu He was reviewing memorials, he suddenly thought of something and looked up at Xun Yu.

"Wen Ruo, the lists of candidates for the honors of filial and honest officials and outstanding talents from various places this year should have been sent in one after another, right?"

During this period, there was no imperial examination system. If a person wanted to become an official, he had to rely on the system of recommendation. The system of selecting filial and honest officials examined moral character, while the system of selecting outstanding talents examined knowledge. Only if one passed one of the two selections could one be recommended to serve as an official, starting as a minor official and gradually entering the official career.

After Liu He ascended the throne, he also thought about reforming this and adopting the imperial examination system. However, the level of knowledge was too low. The vast majority of ordinary people could only recognize dozens or hundreds of words, so the imperial examination system was useless.

Therefore, in the end, Liu He chose to only tighten the investigation and recommendation process of the recommendation system, rather than directly changing the entire system.

In previous years, it would start at the beginning of the year, with various places selecting people with outstanding moral character and talent, then conducting inspections. After the list was finalized, it would be reported to the provincial government, which would then review and examine it. It would not be until the end of the year that various places would submit the final list. According to past practices, starting from early October, the list of recommendations from the Sili area would be submitted to the court, followed by Liangzhou, Bingzhou and other places. It would not be until the end of the year that all the recommendations would be completed, and then in the early spring of the following year, the court would appoint these people.

Since Liu He ascended the throne, there has been a shortage of officials both in the central government and in local counties. At the same time, officials continued to resign due to old age and physical frailty. In addition, some local officials were killed by enemy troops and bandits due to the war.

In addition, the territory under Liu He's jurisdiction was increasing day by day, and most of the officials in the new states and counties he conquered were appointed by the original princes. Naturally, they would not be very loyal to the court, so most of them had to be replaced.

Therefore, the vacancies of officials under Liu He were not filled, but became larger and larger. Now, officials had to be reassigned to Youzhou, Yanzhou, and dozens of counties in Jizhou that were originally under the jurisdiction of Gongsun Zan. This really posed a big problem for Liu He.

In view of this, Liu He attached great importance to the list of candidates recommended every year, always hoping to have more talents to solve his urgent needs.

Xun Yu stood up and clasped his hands, "Reporting to Your Majesty, as of today, I have not received any list of candidates submitted by any place."

"Hmm? Why are all the places so slack this year? Other places are fine, but Daozhun and his men are all serving in the capital area, so why haven't the lists been sent in from the places under their jurisdiction?"

Liu He was very confused.

Xun Yu was obviously prepared, and said: "A few days ago, I sent people to urge Zuo Fengyi, You Fufeng and others. I think there should be news back today or tomorrow."

Liu He naturally had no doubts about Xun Yu's ability: "Well, if you remember this, then just remember it. The recommendation system is related to the survival of the court, so it is of great importance."

"Your Majesty, Zuo Fengyi and his men understand this very well. I think they are busy with worldly affairs these days and have no free time for the time being."

Liu He also felt that Cui Jun’s explanation was very reasonable.

At this time, Gong Saner walked to the door and said, "Your Majesty, there is a memorial from Zuo Fengyi."

Liu He laughed and said, "Qian Li is a guy who can't stand being talked about. He just came as soon as I mentioned him. Hurry, present it." Xun Yu walked out the door and took Qian Li's memorial from Gong Saner.

However, as soon as he opened it and took a look, his brows instantly furrowed.

Liu He asked, "Wen Ruo, what does the memorial say? Is it related to this imperial examination?"

Xun Yu said: "Your Majesty is as good as a god in predicting things. You have approved this memorial. It is indeed to report the matter of the list of candidates for investigation."

"In that case, can he explain why he has not sent the list yet?"

Liu He asked anxiously.

Xun Yu seemed to be hesitant to speak, with an expression of disbelief written all over his face, which made Liu He even more surprised.

"In the end what happened?"

Xun Yu said, "This... Daozhun said that the list of candidates for recommendation in each county this year was originally going very smoothly. More than half a month ago, he personally sent reliable people to review and examine these people, and finally finalized the list and was preparing to submit it to the court. However... a few days ago, there were a total of 23 people on the list. Except for two sons of Daozhun's confidants, the remaining 21 people suddenly took sick leave overnight, and each of them claimed that they were seriously ill and would take several years to recover, so they requested to withdraw from the recommendation list..."

"What? Is there such a thing?"

Liu He immediately sensed something unusual.

Xun You said: "Twenty-one people fell ill at the same time, and all of them were seriously ill and difficult to recover from in a short period of time. This is really unbelievable."

"Unusual, really unusual. To be an official is the dream of the sons of the noble families. It is such an honor to be recommended. Even for a big family like ours, it is a happy event for the sons of the family to be recommended to serve as officials. Logically speaking, if they were not really sick, why would they give up such a good opportunity so voluntarily?"

Cui Jun was also puzzled.

Before Zuo Fengyi's memorial was understood, Gong Saner appeared at the door again.

"Your Majesty, the memorials from Youfufeng, Henan Yin, and Jingzhao Yin have also been delivered."

"Send it in quickly." Liu He almost shouted.

A total of three memorials from Shi Tao, Meng Jian, and Du Ji were all placed in front of Liu He. Liu He flipped through them one by one. The more he read, the tighter his brows furrowed.

"Impossible... Absolutely impossible... How could the same situation happen to the list of candidates from these three places? The candidates either fell ill suddenly or had a relative who passed away and had to observe a three-year mourning period. There are only seven candidates left in the three important places in the capital."

"What? Seven? If you add Zuo Fengyi's two, there are only nine people in total. It's just a drop in the bucket."

Cui Jun had followed Liu He for many years, and although he was knowledgeable and intelligent, at this moment he was frowning and had no idea what to do.

(End of this chapter)