The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 362 Four Piles of Paper
"What a bastard! He spends all day taking pills and drinking instead of attending to government affairs. How can such a person be a county magistrate?!"

"Recall! Recall immediately!!"

"Is Guo Yuan's grandson such a mediocre person?!"

Cao Mao dropped the document in his hand again and said angrily.

The memorials received from the eunuchs every day were simply stress-resistance training for Cao Mao.

The eunuchs traveled to various places and brought back a lot of news every day. These were all about officials from various places. Cao Mao felt angry when he saw these contents.

Cao Mao considered himself a very calm person. He had experienced a lot of things and could control his emotions well. However, he could not withstand these treacherous villains, each one more hateful than the other.

Even Sima Shi would be so angry that he would jump up after seeing such a memorial.

Zhang Hua looked at the furious emperor with a bitter face, and then took the initiative to pick up the document thrown out by Cao Mao.

"Your Majesty, you cannot be dismissed."

"Um?!"

Zhang Hua shook his head, "Your Majesty, I really cannot dismiss you."

"Although the county magistrate of Fengqiu was lazy and neglectful in his duties, he did not harm the people or engage in corruption."

"Fengqiu has achieved some results in recent years."

"If Your Majesty dismisses him, the person who succeeds him may not be able to do better than him."

After hearing what Zhang Hua said, Cao Mao really couldn't hold it anymore.

This is truly an era of comparison.

Don’t ask for the officials to be good, just ask that they are not too bad?

But what Zhang Hua said was not without reason. The Wei Dynasty did not have enough reserve of officials. At the same time, judging from the current overall quality, it was rare to find officials like the county magistrate who only tried to disperse the harm to himself and did not do much harm to the people.

Compared with other local officials who abuse their power, exploit the people, and hoard wealth crazily, he is even more like a human being.

Cao Mao sat back in his seat at this moment, with an indescribable frustration and loss in his eyes.

What the eunuchs saw and heard seemed to pour a bucket of cold water on Cao Mao's ambitions, making him sober up immediately.

Cao Mao has fallen from his dream of governing the world and creating a prosperous era to the unbearable reality of today.

Cao Mao knew that the place was in a bad state, but he didn't know it was so bad.

What went wrong that led to such a terrible situation, and how can we solve this problem?

Looking at Cao Mao who suddenly calmed down, Zhang Hua felt even more melancholy.

The problem is not how to catch mediocre and evil people, but that there is no way to replace them after they are caught. The replacements may not necessarily be better.

And if we ignore the issue of successors and get rid of them all at once and replace them completely, and if that doesn't work then we can continue to get rid of them, but we still need to have sufficient reserves.

If too many are killed, there will be no one to take over. Are we going to leave the positions of county magistrate and prefect vacant? Let the people fend for themselves?

Zhang Hua knew that the emperor must be feeling very uncomfortable at the moment. Knowing the local situation but being unable to govern it was the most frustrating thing.

Zhang Hua cleared his throat and was about to persuade Cao Mao when he raised his head.

At this moment, there was not much anger on Cao Mao's face. He calmed down again, and his eyes became pure and bright.

"Then let's fine him his salary and make him deal with the neglected government affairs promptly."

"His Majesty."

Cao Mao shook his head. "Master Mao, it's alright. I know it's impossible to achieve clean governance in the Wei Dynasty through just one round of investigation."

"If it's so useful, then it wouldn't be my turn to do it. Doesn't the general understand this?"

"I understand the world's problems, but if they cannot be solved all at once, then we can solve them in multiple steps."

“Governing a country is like cooking a fresh dish. If the fire is too strong, it will cause harm.”

Cao Mao said seriously, "We can't say this time it's without results. At least, we have a better understanding of the local area, and we have indeed caught many extremely evil traitors. We also know which ones can be promoted. It can also be regarded as a warning to officials in various places. They dare not act recklessly again."

"If we come here once a year, the situation will improve dramatically one day."

Cao Mao's words seemed to be comforting Zhang Hua, but also seemed to be comforting himself.

Zhang Hua just felt a little ashamed. These were obviously things they should take care of, but His Majesty actually said such words.

Cao Mao smiled and said, "No problem. Please send someone to invite Duke Zheng over. I have important matters to attend to."

Zhang Hua took the order and left.

Cao Mao looked at the memorial again. This time, he did not get angry. His emotions were very stable. He divided the memorial in his hand into four types.

Kill, dismiss, supervise, promote.

As Cao Mao read through the memorials one by one, the pile of memorials for "killing" piled up like a mountain, while "dismissal" and "supervision" each took up half, and there were only a few for "promotion." Cao Mao looked at the memorials in front of him, flipped through them again, and reclassified them.

When Zheng Mao walked into the hall, this was the scene he saw: the emperor was constantly flipping through the memorials, as if comparing them, and then constantly changing their positions.

There were four piles of petitions placed in front of the emperor. As the emperor moved, the four piles of papers gradually became evenly distributed and the differences became smaller.

Zheng Mao seemed to realize something and just knelt aside, not daring to disturb him.

Cao Mao didn't know how long he had been busy, but he finally put the memorial in front of him.

Only then did he look at Zheng Mao standing beside him.

"Duke Zheng, today I finally understand how difficult it is for you."

Zheng Mao hurriedly stood up and said, "I'm only busy with one thing, but Your Majesty has so much to worry about. How can I dare to say that it's not easy for me?"

Cao Mao shook his head and sat down next to Zheng Mao casually. He stroked his chin and said seriously, "Duke Zheng, this Zhongzheng system needs to be changed."

"Ah? Your Majesty, what do you mean?"

"I remember that officials in the pre-Qin period had to undergo assessments. Later, the Imperial Academy in the Former Han Dynasty also established assessments. In our dynasty, even doctors who were appointed to official positions had to undergo assessments."

"I think that these Zhongzheng officials also need to be evaluated. It's not the usual evaluation of family background and talent. We should use the same examination paper and let them conduct the evaluation. The one with the highest score will be awarded the official position."

Yes, this is the early imperial examination system.

The early imperial examination system actually served the aristocratic families, because participation in the imperial examination required recommendation, just like the Zhongzheng system, and people from poor families had no chance at all.

Cao Mao had never thought of implementing the early imperial examination system. This was because the imperial examination system at the time could not solve the problem of aristocratic families, and even if it was established, it would be monopolized by aristocratic families.

But now, Cao Mao had the idea of promoting the early imperial examination system.

This is not to solve the problem of aristocratic families, but simply to improve the cultivation of officials.

Cao Mao felt that the collapse of the current civil service system was caused by the Zhongzheng system.

In the past, there were also big problems with selecting filial and honest officials. Local governments directly recommended talents, which led to the widespread practice of students being recommended as former officials. Many people engaged in fraud, promoted each other, and sought popularity.

As the saying goes, if you select a filial and honest person, your father will live separately.

But the current Zhongzheng system seems to have even bigger problems. It evaluates a person's talent, family, and reputation based on the standards of Qingtan, and then grants official titles. This is simply a joke!!!

Just look at the people selected by Zhongzheng System, each of them looks like they have a serious illness.

Cao Mao felt that the birth of the early imperial examination system was not to solve the problem of the dominance of aristocratic families, but to solve the problem of poor administration!

Many people think that the imperial examination system was born in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. In fact, the imperial examination system had its prototype in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The reason for its emergence was probably that one day a capable person saw the level of local officials.

Cao Mao thought it was time to take the exam.

Even if it is just an internal examination within a noble family, it must be conducted. I don't care whether you come from a noble family or a poor family. Just don't be a humanoid creature who brings disaster to the local area, is uneducated and knows nothing.

We can find ways to strengthen moral issues, but we must address the issue of talent in a timely manner.

When Zheng Mao heard what Cao Mao said, he agreed with it very much.

Because Cao Mao was not the first person to propose the importance of assessment. Even in the Later Han Dynasty, some people had thought about this issue. Unfortunately, a moral society also has its own troubles. Such behavior was interpreted as emphasizing talent over morality and quickly failed.

The moral society of the Later Han Dynasty was also very strange, but it was a different type of strangeness from that of the Wei and Jin Dynasties.

They each have their own advantages and disadvantages. For example, the Later Han Dynasty attached great importance to people's livelihood and thought that people like Ma Jun were wasting their time on material things, while the Wei and Jin Dynasties attached great importance to entertainment and thought that inventors like Ma Jun were still very powerful.

Zheng Mao quickly spoke up, "Your Majesty, the ministers have often mentioned the Zhongzheng reform these days."

"If Your Majesty could make some concessions and allow the family to be assigned a rank, but subject to an assessment, perhaps this could be implemented everywhere soon."

Cao Mao laughed and said, "No, you still overestimate these people."

"The longer I interact with them, the lower my opinion of them becomes."

"What they most hope for is for their family to become nobles for generations, not to become talented people for generations. But whether they agree or not, I will push through this matter. I have already seen through the current situation."

"Although the ills of the world have only surfaced, they are actually terminally ill. The news brought by the eunuchs during their travels to various places is even more shocking."

"I originally wanted to resolve these issues through gentle and slow means, but now I feel that if I want to govern the world well, I can only do so with a swift and heavy hand. I should emulate the great generals of the past and rule by putting a knife to their necks."

Hearing the emperor's harsh words, Zheng Mao felt neither surprised nor frightened.

He looked again at the four piles of papers in front of the emperor.

Those four simple piles of paper represent the corruption in the world today and the determination of Your Majesty.

He will not give up easily. Even if he has to bear the reputation of a tyrant and cold-blooded, he will not give up on saving this broken country.

The hard-working people were suffocating under the weight of those four piles of papers.

ps: I can’t hold on any longer, so I’ll write two less chapters today and make up for it at the beginning of next month.

(End of this chapter)