The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 815 Imperial Examination
Cao Mao was lying on the bed with many documents around him.

Sima Yi gently massaged his shoulders.

Cao Mao held the book in his hands and read it very seriously.

These are what the ministers who went to Kushan reported on what they saw and heard.

What is strange is that although it is the same place, the records made by different officials are completely different, and everyone seems to have his or her own understanding.

Cao Mao was not picky and took the records of these people to read together.

Up to now, Cao Mao had read the records of three people. Although the records of the three people were slightly different, Cao Mao had roughly figured out the situation over there.

I'm afraid the Kushans can't hold on any longer.

At this point, even if Cao Mao wanted to save him, it would probably be difficult to achieve.

The internal and external troubles were more serious than those faced by the Later Han Dynasty. Not only were there warlords fighting for power, but there was also a powerful enemy that had just risen, and they were defeated repeatedly.

Cao Mao's trade with other countries was not guaranteed, and the princes simply did not obey the king's orders. Even if the king gave Cao Mao more guarantees, what was the use if they were not implemented locally?
It seems that we still have to trade with the Persians.

Of course, the Kushans cannot give up either.

After all, this was the pro-Wei King of Dayuezhi who had paid tribute to him and was officially enthroned.

Looking at Cao Mao in deep thought, Sima Yi said softly, "Your Majesty, the Queen came to see me again today, still about that matter."

Cao Mao was stunned, put down the book in his hand and smiled bitterly.

"She hasn't given up yet, so why bother?"

During these days, Queen Zheng Xian has been urging Cao Mao to take in more concubines as soon as possible.

When Zhuge Xu was on a diplomatic mission outside the Great Wall, the queen gave birth to another daughter for Cao Mao.

Cao Mao was of course very happy, and the harem gradually became lively.

However, several ministers in the Ministry of Rites took the opportunity to submit a memorial to the empress, hoping that the empress would allow Cao Mao to take more concubines.

This is because Cao Mao had too few children, and those groups that were deeply tied to Cao Mao were not very reassured.

Emperor Wu had more than twenty sons! And that's just talking about sons, not even daughters.

As for Cao Pi, he also had ten sons.

But when it came to Cao Rui, there was only Cao Fang as his adopted son, and everyone saw what happened later.

Since Cao Mao ascended the throne, he has been focusing on governing the country and almost ignoring his own family affairs. This has led to the current situation, with only two people in the harem and few children.

With today's infant mortality rate, to put it bluntly, two children may not be enough.

Ten children is about right.

Faced with the advice of the ministers, Zheng Xian did not get angry. Her position as queen was already as solid as a rock, and her son also needed the help of his brothers.

Even she herself cannot be known as jealous.

So she urged Cao Mao to take a concubine several times.

Cao Mao was not very anxious. After all, he was still young and had no serious illness. The harem was actually quite good at the moment. There were no worries and they got along well with each other.

He didn't really want to disrupt the peace of the harem.

When there are more people, there will be more problems.

Zheng Xian is not a particularly strong queen.

Sima Yi advised again at this moment: "Your Majesty, although you have no intention of taking another concubine, but Queen Yun is jealous of Your Majesty's youth and beauty, even if you take a few more beauties, it is not necessarily a chaos in the harem."

From a political perspective, Sima Yi believed that a qualified emperor must have at least five sons to ensure that there would be someone to inherit in case of an accident.

Cao Mao pondered for a moment before saying, "Well, this matter still needs to be considered carefully."

Seeing that Cao Mao seemed to have his own ideas, Sima Yi stopped trying to persuade him.

Cao Mao looked at the document in his hand again, but his mind was thinking about tomorrow's imperial examination.

The palace examination is tomorrow.

In fact, Cao Mao had decided what questions to ask long ago.

That’s right, it’s the advancement order.

The last palace examination was for the award of the Land Award, and this time the palace examination was for the Advancement Award.

The questions are easy to guess, but the problem is that whether they are easy to guess or not will not affect the test results.

Because at this point, there will basically be no fools left, and Cao Mao knows exactly what these people are like.

At this point, there is no need to worry about them preparing in advance. What is being tested is how to govern the country, how to assist the king, and of course, a political stance.

The Shangjin Order was the most unfavorable policy to the aristocratic families. If one could still stand on Cao Mao's side on this policy, then one could completely prove one's position.

For Cao Mao now, proving his position is more important than anything else.

Cao Mao quickly put down the documents in his hand and fell asleep in a hurry.

The next day, Cao Mao got up, but the second prince Liang had not yet gotten up. He did not wake his son up and quietly left.

The palace examination will be held in Taiji Hall.

The more than ten people participating in the assessment are now fully prepared and full of confidence.

Liu Yuan sat at the front of the group. Although everyone felt a little unhappy with this Xiongnu man, no one dared to show it, mainly because his background was too strong. Not to mention his father, the fact that he was a teacher at the Ministry of Education was enough to silence the many candidates present.

Zhong Hui's prestige is now becoming increasingly greater. Since he was able to command the three ministers, all the officials have respected him as the most respected person, and no one dares to challenge his authority anymore.

In the past, there were veteran ministers like Wang Chang who could challenge him, but now, there is only Guanqiu Jian.

However, Guanqiu Jian was not interested in government affairs. Unless Zhong Hui went too far, he would basically not interfere in the affairs of the court.

Under such circumstances, Zhong Hui's power was naturally at its peak and unmatched.

As his only disciple, Liu Yuan's status was constantly improving.

Almost no one cared about his Xiongnu origin, and some people even wanted to take the initiative to marry Liu Yuan, hoping to establish some friendship with Zhong Hui through him.

Unfortunately, Zhong Hui has always been a heartless person.

When Cao Mao appeared in the hall, many candidates hurriedly stood up, most of whom were young people.

Just like last time, they were all from wealthy families, and there was hardly anyone from a humble background.

This reminded Cao Mao of Lu Zhi's words again.

It is not too difficult to suppress these big families economically, but it is very difficult to eradicate their roots and complete anti-monopoly in academia.

Cao Mao did not dislike these people because of their backgrounds.

He sat in the upper seat and first affirmed the achievements made by everyone.

Then, he slowly talked about the current situation.

"Since the imperial court issued the decree for progress, the national treasury has become increasingly enriched, the people are living and working in peace and contentment, and all regions are thriving. This is truly different from the past."

"I can't figure it out."

"Please teach me the above orders and tell me how to improve and continue the process."

Everyone was listening very attentively, but as soon as the emperor opened his mouth, many of them showed joy.

It is indeed so.

This question is really easy to guess. Many people have already thought that the question will be about the order to progress, so they have made sufficient preparations.

There was no change on Liu Yuan's face.

To him, no matter what the problem is, it is not a problem.

Someone came to distribute paper and pens, and everyone started writing their answers.

Cao Mao sat in the upper seat and looked at them seriously.

His eyes were mainly fixed on Liu Yuan. Of course, there were two other people here who needed his attention.

That’s right, it’s Cao Mao’s adopted son Guo Ping and Cao Qi’s good friend Liu Hong.

Guo Ping is no longer the little boy he used to be, but has become a brave young man.

Cao Mao hired many teachers for him, and finally he followed Chen Qian from the Ministry of War to learn classics and military strategies.

Cao Mao did not directly grant him an official title because of his identity. Instead, he required him to participate in the imperial examination and prove his ability through his results.

Guo Ping had been preparing for this for a long time. He was the exact opposite of Liu Yuan.

The first exam was the easiest, but by the second one, he started to find it a bit difficult, and by the third one, he started to panic.

Chen Qian taught him the classics very carefully, but when it came to current national policies, Chen Qian couldn't teach him much. This was mainly because Guo Ping's identity as the emperor's adopted son was too special.

If Chen Qian casually revealed his thoughts on many policies to him, what would be the difference between that and telling the emperor directly?

This resulted in Guo Ping having good abilities in classics, but lacking knowledge in national policy.

He soon began to sweat.

The other one is Cao Qi’s good friend Liu Hong. This guy is an all-round talent. The previous times were neither too easy nor too difficult for him, including this time.

During this period, Cao Mao left his seat twice, of course, in order to meet with several important ministers and instruct them on some important matters.

Although Zhong Hui was in charge of the Three Palaces, many government affairs still had to be approved by the emperor before they could be implemented, and the specific progress had to be reported to the emperor in a timely manner.

The test lasted for half a day, and everyone finally left one by one.

Cao Mao looked at the expressions of the crowd and had an idea in his mind.

After everyone left, the emperor's attendants collected their articles and sent them to him for review.

As for these new nobles, they were taken away by officials to rest.

They still have another chance to dine with the emperor, but they have to wait for the emperor to determine their ranking first.

Cao Mao sat in the room and began to look at the test papers of many candidates.

The first one to look at is Liu Yuan’s.

Sure enough, just as Cao Mao had thought, in Liu Yuan’s answer, one could already see Zhong Hui’s ability to command the country.

Liu Yuan believed that this situation occurred because the powerful families were economically suppressed, which prevented them from annexing, monopolizing, and bullying the local area, thus leading to the current prosperous era.

If we want to continue and improve it, we need to make the progress order more complete, cover a wider range, and have clearer targets.
Liu Yuan wrote several thousand words, and there was not a single word of nonsense in it. All of them were about how to make the progress order go further.

Cao Mao pondered for a moment, then laughed.

This guy can be left to Cao Wen!
(End of this chapter)