Fu Shanhe

Chapter 553 Imperial Examination Reform
"My lord, please rest assured!"
We conducted research before making any plans.

Based on the collected information, the Kingdom of Burma has become militaristic and has no problem capturing hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war in subsequent battles.

If the enemy puts up a fierce resistance, they can capture hundreds of thousands more prisoners of war, directly solving a quarter of the labor shortage.

The Mughal Empire's fools were also tricked into joining the war.

Judging by the timeline, their 100,000-strong army should have arrived at the front lines by now.

Based on intelligence from various sources, preliminary estimates suggest that the Mughal Empire had a population of over 100 million, and possibly even approaching 150 million.

Judging solely from population data, the difference between them and the current Great Yu Empire should not be significant.

By simply occupying a few provinces bordering Myanmar, they could gather enough labor.

Moreover, the Burmese people have been misled by Westerners and are attempting to form an anti-Yu alliance, intending to drag all of Yu's neighbors into the war.

Japan to the east also has a large population, and if they get involved in the war, they could provide us with one or two million laborers.

There was also the Goguryeo Kingdom, which long supported the Tatars and caused serious damage to the empire's northern border.

With the aim of weakening the Tatars' war potential, the military is planning a cross-border expedition to destroy their granaries and purse strings.

If necessary, we can consider relocating all the local residents to the south.

Ni Zhihong said with great confidence.

The Annam Protectorate needed labor to develop, and the military also needed military achievements.

If it weren't for Li Mu's suppression from above, they would have dared to attack their neighbors at the same time.

It's not that everyone is arrogant; it's just that there are only a few countries around the Annam Protectorate.

Unfortunately, the military strength of each country is weaker than the last.

All of it together, it's not that complicated.

Because they controlled the seas, even if the Protectorate General was at war with various countries at the same time, they might not know it from each other.

"Very well, I approve the Ministry of Transportation's plan."

If the project is successfully completed, I will personally petition His Majesty for credit on your behalf!

Li Mu readily agreed.

It's rare to find someone so willing to take on responsibilities, so he naturally wants to give them his full support.

It would be best if the mission could be completed, but he could understand that the project was delayed because not enough prisoners of war were captured on the battlefield.

Great ministers are forged through experience; without providing them with a platform, they will never grow into capable leaders.

As for asking the emperor for credit, that was just an excuse.

The promotion and reward of officials within the Annam Protectorate were never discussed with the Emperor of Da Yu.

Using the emperor's name was mainly for legitimacy; the emperor himself didn't need to know that much.

……

"Feng Qingyun, what's going on with your Ministry of Education?"

After resolving the traffic issue, Li Mu turned to the Minister of Education and asked him a question.

Due to practical problems, the Annam Protectorate is not yet able to promote universal compulsory education and has only established primary and secondary schools in developed areas.

As a result, the Ministry of Education has limited influence among all ministries.

But with the introduction of the imperial examination system, everything changed.

Passing the imperial examination meant obtaining the qualification to become an official.

The Chinese people's obsession with becoming officials is ingrained in their very bones.

With the news of the resumption of the imperial examinations, the Ministry of Education, which was originally a neglected department, suddenly became the focus of attention from all sides.

"My lord, judging from the feedback from all sides, there is a strong resistance to our reforms from the outside world."

The response from scholars was particularly strong. Given the large number of prefectures and counties in our area, the imperial court dispatched a large supervisory team, led by renowned scholars from all over the country.

After assessing the risks, the Ministry of Education decided to adopt a phased approach to complete the reform of the imperial examination system.

This year's first imperial examination retained all the traditional elements: interpretation of classics, essays, judgments, imperial edicts, and policy questions.

Based on this, two more subjects, arithmetic and science, were added.

Feng Qingyun hurriedly explained.

The imperial examinations in the Great Yu Dynasty usually consisted of three sessions.

In layman's terms, it refers to the study of classic texts, official document writing, and current affairs and policy discussions.

Li Mu's previous plan was to merge these three subjects into one, which would reduce the proportion of the traditional imperial examination content to one-third.

The Ministry of Education's plan is clearly more moderate, adding only two subjects to the traditional imperial examination system.

The scores for all five exam subjects were the same, and traditional imperial examination content still accounted for 60% of the weight.

"There are too many. This exam is mainly a pilot program and is limited to the elementary school students."

The amount of material that everyone has learned is far less than that; if the exam is conducted according to this standard, the scores will be quite disappointing.

All content that contradicts our practices has been deleted, and even if there is an exam, it must be conducted according to our standards.

As for the supervisory team sent by the imperial court, they got lost at sea and didn't know when they would arrive.

It would be best if we could catch up, but if we missed it, there's nothing we can do; there's no need to wait for them.

Li Mu immediately rejected the idea.

He personally reviewed all the textbooks used in schools across the country, so he knew exactly what they contained.

The Four Books and Five Classics are for selective study; some of the more complex content might be beyond the comprehension of even the teachers below.

After all, the teaching staff of the Protectorate General's Office was of varying abilities.

Many of them were transferred from the military and then resettled there.

Before enlisting, these people were illiterate; they learned all their cultural knowledge in the military.

They can manage to read from the book, but when it comes to official documents and strategies, I doubt even they understand them.

To be precise, even Li Mu himself lacked the ability in this area.

The generals under his command had never systematically studied the Four Books and Five Classics, let alone played word games.

To ensure that everyone could understand them, all official documents of the Annam Protectorate were written in plain and easy-to-understand language.

With the general style of writing changing, the traditional official document writing naturally becomes less important.

"Your Excellency is right. It is indeed quite difficult to test a group of beginners on so much content."

Why not simply reduce one subject and only test four subjects: Classics, Policy Questions, Arithmetic, and Science?

The main exam content is based on the textbooks for primary and secondary schools published by the government, with some additional current affairs content.

Feng Qingyun replied hesitantly.

It cannot be cut any further; even if it is still the preliminary examination for elementary school students, the social impact must be considered.

The weight of Confucian classics in the imperial examinations has dropped to half, and scholars are probably already cursing his ancestors for eighteen generations.

If the pressure continues to increase, someone will dig up his ancestral graves.

In essence, he was also a legitimate Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) of the Great Yu Dynasty, and he understood the mentality of scholars very well.

Although the reforms of the Annam Protectorate did not change the core of "passing the exam to become an official," they were very unfriendly to traditional scholars who were well-versed in the Four Books and Five Classics.

The eight-legged essays that everyone had practiced for over ten or twenty years were suddenly no longer required to be tested, and the examinations on classics and policy questions were also passively replaced by vernacular Chinese.

Even showing off one's literary talent was forbidden, as no one knew the true level of education of the officials responsible for grading the papers. After all, over 90% of the officials in the Annam Protectorate were commoners without any official rank.

Normal reading and writing comprehension is definitely not a problem.

If the examiner quotes classical texts and uses a lot of ornate language, it's hard to say whether the examiner will be able to understand it.

The rise of vernacular Chinese as the mainstream was not due to Li Mu's strong promotion, but rather to the overall quality of the officials of the Annam Protectorate.

Anyone who wants to join this startup team must naturally follow the team's rules.

The addition of arithmetic and science was an even bigger blow.

The previous reforms only reduced the difficulty; after a few complaints, people were still able to answer the questions normally.

The following content is all new, and it's the kind of content they despise the most, so everyone has absolutely no background in it.

Regardless of how much they used to despise them, now if they want to participate in the imperial examinations organized by the Annam Protectorate, they must study.

Otherwise, without the scores in these two subjects, even if you get full marks in the other two subjects, you can forget about getting into a good family.

The imperial examination reform is currently limited to the Annam Protectorate and should theoretically have no impact on scholars in other regions. Everyone can just watch and see what happens.

The reality was quite the opposite; few scholars within the Annam Protectorate stood up to oppose it, while the scholar-officials within the Great Yu territory were particularly vocal in their opposition.

It's not that they're meddling in other people's business, nor are they upholding Confucian tradition; it's simply that some people with a clear understanding of the current situation have seen things clearly.

Given the current situation, if the Great Yu Empire collapses, the probability of Li Mu seizing power is extremely high.

The stakes are so high that even people like them have to consider placing bets.

The sudden change in the rules of the game had a significant impact on the scholar-officials.

This means that all the academic capital they are so proud of, including their right to define and interpret classics, will be reduced to zero.

The supervisory delegation from Nanjing was both a purge of dissidents by the cabinet and a test of Li Mu's abilities by the scholar-officials.

If everyone can reach an agreement on this issue, the Great Yu Empire can collapse immediately, and then a new emperor can be enthroned to establish a new dynasty.

It's estimated that it won't take more than two or three years to sweep away all the warlords and reunify the country.

Their plan was brilliant, but unfortunately, they didn't have enough leverage to make Li Mu compromise.

When the day comes for the struggle for control of the Central Plains, the world will have no shortage of traitors.

If you react too slowly, you won't even qualify to be a collaborator.

"Well, let's do it!"

Li Mu nodded and said.

The far-reaching reform of the imperial examination system was decided so simply.

None of the civil or military officials attending the meeting expressed any objection.

If a new dynasty follows the same methods as the previous one, wouldn't the change be pointless?

No matter how Li Mu wants to change things, those who boarded the ship early are all beneficiaries of the vested interest group.

The gentry group has accumulated too much power; it is difficult to eradicate them completely by simply killing them.

The best option is to change the rules of the game and eliminate their advantage at the source.

Even if they immediately arranged for their children to start learning, they would still be ten years behind.

At the critical juncture of the establishment of a new dynasty, being ten years behind meant losing political influence.

In a sense, it was also an invisible coercion.

This is tantamount to telling the gentry in various regions that if they do not align themselves with the Protectorate as soon as possible, they will have no place in the imperial court in the future.

Those who hope to stabilize the situation and then take the imperial examination to enter officialdom and wield power are dreaming.

Under the new rules, those old fogies can't even qualify for official positions.

"My lord, the imperial surveillance team has gone missing. Where do you think they might have gotten lost?"

Feng Qingyun offered a tactful reminder.

It's acceptable to let those great scholars get lost, but they absolutely cannot be wiped out, otherwise the Annam Protectorate will be in a difficult position to explain.

This event will be recorded in future history books as their dark history.

As times progressed, historians became increasingly timid, and few dared to directly criticize the emperor.

In most serious incidents, the ministers were the ones who took the blame.

Usually, people only dare to be bolder when they are compiling the history of the previous dynasty after a change of dynasty.

Even so, they were still very cautious when it came to the sanctity of imperial power.

As the Minister of Education, he already had a lot of enemies, and he didn't want to be burdened with the infamy of annihilating the inspection team.

"The sea is rough, anything can happen, how do I know where they'll drift to?"

However, since the monsoon winds blow south, the fleet will most likely also be heading south, and they are bound to encounter so many islands in the South Seas.

Perhaps Heaven felt that the indigenous people of Southeast Asia desperately needed the guidance of great Confucian scholars, and deliberately sent them there.

Once they've completed the task assigned by Heaven, they should be able to return.

Li Mu answered without changing his expression.

Frankly speaking, the fact that one could get lost while sailing in coastal waters is unprecedented.

Let alone now, even a hundred years ago, it would have been an extremely low-probability event.

But there was no way around it; Li Mu's Nanjing cabinet had a tacit understanding.

They sent these eyesores over here because they wanted to use him to eliminate their rivals.

In return, the Nanjing court would remain silent on the civil service examination reforms of the Annam Protectorate.

The fact that the court did not oppose such a radical and unorthodox act is itself a form of support.

With the court's tacit approval, the reforms were legally completed within the framework of the Great Yu Empire.

As for these great scholars and their unfortunate students, they should just stay in Southeast Asia and educate the people!

Whether they can adapt to the local climate depends on their luck.

At the very least, for so many years since Li Mu established the Annam Protectorate, he had been active in the Guangdong and Guangxi provinces and the Jiaozhi provincial administration, and had never dared to go out and inspect the territory.

Besides the fact that the two places are more economically prosperous, the main reason is that they were developed earlier and are not plagued by miasma like other regions.

Especially during the conquest of Southeast Asia, the losses from non-combat casualties were greater than the number of soldiers killed on the battlefield.

They were able to persevere because, on the one hand, the land was very tempting, and on the other hand, their opponents were too weak.

Almost every battle was a one-sided affair.

Once you've acquired land, even if you leave it lying fallow, you can't give it back.

The immigrants who happened to come from the inland were also land-obsessed enthusiasts.

The islands of Southeast Asia have a hot, rainy, and humid climate and are occasionally threatened by typhoons, but they also have plenty of food.

Those freely growing fruit trees alone could feed many people.

For someone who has experienced hunger, any place with abundant food is a good place.

As for the shortcomings in climate, we can just bear with them and they will pass.

For ordinary people, this hot and humid climate is much better than the icy and snowy north!
Not only can it save money on buying cotton-padded coats, but it can also reduce the amount of firewood used.

(End of this chapter)