The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 442 Exam starts

Luoyang.

Scholars had already gathered outside the county government office.

There are soldiers stationed around here to take charge of the public security issues here.

The scholars gathered here and naturally divided into two factions.

Those gathered in the distance were all children of wealthy families. At this moment, Luoyang suddenly regarded shabby clothes as beautiful. The clothes worn by these children of wealthy families were no different from those of children from poor families. However, the difference could be seen at a glance.

After all, clothes may become worn out, but the materials they are made of remain unchanged.

A tattered piece of embroidery is still embroidery.

They were also accompanied by many slaves to help them. The carriage was parked not far away, and the slaves kept taking all kinds of things from the carriage and running back and forth.

These people talked a lot, describing the latest trends among the scholars, and were unwilling to even look at the larger group of poor children in the distance.

"I heard Mr. Ruan has a new work?"

"Oh, in times of chaos and defeat, there will surely be a famous article."

"With treacherous officials now in power and moral governance in decline, it's no surprise that famous works are appearing in large numbers!"

"Shut up! He's henchmen are everywhere, stop talking nonsense!"

"Those traitors can only appear among the immoral villains. Those who are here are all noble and famous people. How could they help the tyrants to commit such atrocities?"

As everyone talked, they couldn't help but point their criticism at the emperor.

Cao Mao's status in the hearts of these scholars is now extremely bad.

They all felt that the Great Wei would perish at the hands of this tyrant.

They compared Cao Mao to the Qin Shi Huang and Han Wudi. The reputations of these two emperors were actually quite good during the reign of Cao Pi. They had both merits and faults, and their reputations were relatively objective. However, after the rise of the second generation, the reputations of these two emperors began to plummet. In the minds of the elegant and refined scholars, their behavior was barbaric, arbitrary, and very "uncivilized."

It is worth mentioning that the reputations of many emperors of the Former Han and Later Han dynasties among the scholars of the Wei and Jin dynasties have changed greatly. The most obvious one is that Liu Xiu's reputation has been on a continuous upward trend, while the reputations of emperors Wu, Xuan, Jing, including Liu Bang, have declined, but Emperor Wen remained unchanged.

After the migration of the elite to the south, the reputation of these emperors will change again.

Today is the day of the county examination in Luoyang.

The imperial examination system initiated by Cao Mao was completely different from the imperial examinations of later generations. It was a combination of the official assessment methods of the Qin and Han dynasties and the Five Classics assessment of the Imperial Academy.

Even the nascent imperial examination system was much more advanced than the Zhongzheng system.

These scholars were very unhappy with this so-called imperial examination system.

Originally, they only needed to show up to be recommended, and the assessment was conducted individually. As long as the family was powerful enough, there was no need to worry about the exam.

If you choose to study at the Imperial Academy, you can easily pass the Five Classics examination and become a candidate official.

But now, they have to give up their advantages and follow these peasants to participate in the same assessment.

This is simply a humiliation for them.

In the first imperial examination of the Wei Dynasty, the children of the wealthy families hardly participated, which was a statement of their opposition to the new system.

Those who are participating now are forced to participate by the elders in their families. The elders in their families are all important officials in the temple. If no one in the family participates, they are worried that they will offend the emperor, so they force several of their children to participate.

Of course, there were also a few who sincerely participated, wanting to use their real talents and knowledge to get before the emperor and become famous throughout the world.

Therefore, the children of these wealthy families were in a very bad state and were not at all concerned about this assessment. Some of them were even discussing whether to hand in a blank paper to prove their courage and attitude.

The imperial examination was not an opportunity for them at all. If they wanted to become officials, there were simply too many opportunities.

Although the emperor announced the abolition of Zhongzheng and Taixue Five Classics, they did not care. If the court did not need them to be officials, who else could it use?
Aren’t you afraid that no one will be available?

And those people in the distance were all serious students from poor families and common people.

The status of these people is completely different from that of the scholars from high-ranking families.

They were very excited at the moment, their faces full of anticipation.

The imperial examination was truly a great blessing to them.

Under the original Zhongzheng system, people like them whose families were of low rank or even no rank had no chance to become officials. Even if they joined a powerful family and were lucky enough to go to the Imperial Academy, they still had no chance and were not eligible to participate in the Five Classics examination.

The road was completely blocked.

Their biggest chance is to serve as an official in a local area, then get close to the son of a wealthy family, flatter him, and wait for him to promote them.

Now, things have finally changed. They can also participate in the assessment, and everyone relies on their own knowledge instead of family background.

Of course, even if the children of wealthy families have no intention of studying, they have enjoyed the best resources since childhood, teachers, books, and are far ahead of others in all aspects. But this is nothing. It is already very rare to be able to let others take the same exam as themselves.

At this moment, they had no mind to discuss any major world affairs. They were all reciting scriptures nervously, fearing that they would make mistakes.

At the appointed time, the gate of the county government office was opened and officials came out to let everyone in in an orderly manner.

The children of the wealthy families who were standing at the farthest point ordered their servants to clear the way and then entered in a swaggering manner. The children of the poor and common people could only wait on the sides, and only followed them in after all of them had entered.

The county government attached great importance to this assessment, even though the number of participants was very small, only more than 700 people.

Cao Mao did not set up too many restrictions, and even did not pay too much attention to the examination questions, leaving it to the local authorities to handle. This was because Cao Mao had originally conducted a thorough investigation of the local authorities and eliminated too many good-for-nothings and cunning villains.

There are huge vacancies of local officials in Wei Dynasty now. After identifying Wei Dynasty's reserve officials, Zheng Mao sent them to various places to plug the loopholes, but it is still far from enough.

The most outrageous situation is in Qingzhou. Because of the previous rebellion, there has been a large-scale reduction in the number of officials. In some counties, there are only seven or eight officials left, and the county has to help manage them.

The purpose of this imperial examination is to temporarily select a group of talented people from the public to fill these vacancies.

If you pass the assessment of the county government, you can serve as a minor official in the county. By promoting those who were not involved in corruption and letting these newcomers assist them, you can form a brand new administrative team at the local level.

It was because of the financial difficulties faced by the government that this imperial examination seemed somewhat sloppy, even childish and immature.

But this is also forced by the current situation.

As the situation changes, everything will change. Take Jiangling for example. If the situation in Wu was normal, even if there were only 3,000 people, Wei would probably have to use an army of 100,000 to besiege it for a long time and might not be able to take it down.

Because the other party can continue to get assistance through water.

However, after Sun Chen killed so many people, the mainland could not provide any rescue. The soldiers had no morale and dared not fight. The generals all wanted to surrender and were in a panic. Let alone 3,000 people, even 300,000 people could not hold the city.

The same principle applies to today's assessments. In the face of a serious shortage of officials, we don't care whether things are done roughly or not. We just have to do it first and talk about it later.

When entering and leaving, these people will be checked to ensure that they do not have anything that can be used to cheat.

This was actually a very normal thing, but it encountered extremely strong opposition from the children of the big families.

"How humiliating is this?!"

"Do you think we are such unfaithful people?!"

They felt that this kind of body search was disrespectful to them, or as people after them often said, it was indecent.

If it were an ordinary official, he really wouldn't be able to suppress them.

But the Luoyang magistrate is not a weak person. The current Luoyang magistrate is called Wu Mao.

He stood not far away, staring at the shouting soldiers in front of him.

Wu Mao's father, Wu Zhou, once served as the Grand Master of Imperial Households, and was from a prominent family with generations of loyal and righteous people. However, he was rather rebellious since childhood. He did not like to make friends with the powerful and wealthy, and was honest and upright.

Historically, he served as the governor of Shangluo, and with his virtue and achievements, he was promoted to the position of Shangshu.

At that time, there was a man named Xun Kai who was not a good person. He was very fond of this famous scholar and thought that he came from a prominent family. He wrote a letter to him to make friends with him. However, Wu Mao looked down on him and refused to associate with him. Then, he was slandered and killed.
Another story about a man who, failing to chase his idol, kills his idol.

At this moment, Wu Mao had just started his official career. Unlike the other scholars, he admired the emperor's actions to rectify the administration of officials and was proactive in his work. Even Cao Mao had heard of his name and specifically instructed Zheng Mao to keep an eye on this person. If he performed well, he could be promoted.

He had absolutely no intention of condoning these people and immediately began to reprimand them, "If you have a clear conscience, why are you afraid of a body search?! This is to ensure that no one is cheating. If anyone has something to hide, you can leave now!"

Upon hearing Wu Mao's words, several scholars became furious.

But he didn't say anything about leaving and accepted the body search.

Then, they were searched and found to have prepared articles and various cheating tools.

Wu Mao was furious and immediately ordered his men to be arrested and sent to the Supreme Court for punishment.

Wu Mao didn't understand where they got the courage from to be so arrogant even though they were cheating!

When everyone entered the examination room, the first county examination of the Wei Dynasty began.

The first round of the exam is about classics.

Because the questions were set by the county, they were not very difficult. They were just some simple explanations of classics, classic short sentences, questions about classics and the like.

Because the county magistrates in each place have different backgrounds, the test questions are also slightly different, especially in the classics, but generally speaking, the scope does not exceed the Five Classics. As long as you are not an uneducated person, you can easily pass it.

(End of this chapter)