The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 564: Another Pioneering Provincial Examination
Wanli set another precedent.

He actually issued an edict to hold the provincial examination in August this year!

It is not surprising that the imperial examination and the palace examination were held with special examinations.

Many emperors held special examinations for the provincial and palace examinations.

Emperor Hongwu held nine special imperial examinations.

However, there has never been an imperial examination held in the provincial examination.

Wanli actually held special examinations for the provincial level, and he also stipulated that the number of candidates selected from the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty should be three times more than before!
At this moment, all the poor scholars in the Ming Dynasty almost went crazy with joy.

They dream of passing the imperial examination.

The problem is that most of them can only pass the imperial examination in their dreams.

Because it is more difficult for a scholar to pass the examination for Juren than for a Juren to pass the examination for Jinshi.

There were more than a thousand prefectures, counties and districts in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty, and each prefecture, county and district had dozens of scholars.

In other words, there were tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of scholars in the Ming Dynasty.

However, each provincial examination in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty selected at most a thousand candidates.

The selection ratio is at least 1 in 30, 1 in 50 or even 1 in 100.

For example, in Northern Zhili, the admission ratio is almost one hundred to one.

There are more than 13,000 examination rooms in the Imperial Examination Hall in the capital, which were mainly built for the provincial examinations.

Every time the Northern Zhili provincial examination was held, there were at least tens of thousands of scholars who came to take the exam.

However, only about 100 candidates were selected in a provincial examination in Northern Zhili.

The selection ratio is roughly one hundred to one.

From this we can see how difficult it is for a scholar to pass the imperial examination.

It can be said that the examination for the Juren degree by the scholars is the open audition for the imperial examination. A small number of Juren degrees are selected from a large number of scholars, and those who are not so good will not be selected.

These scholars are divided into different grades.

It is relatively difficult for a scholar from a family of officials to pass the imperial examination and become a juren, but the hope is still great.

It was very difficult for a scholar from a wealthy family to pass the imperial examination.
It is even more difficult for a poor scholar to pass the imperial examination.

In "The Scholars", the poor scholar Fan Jin was overjoyed after passing the imperial examination.

That's not an exaggeration, it's the truth.

It is extremely difficult for a poor scholar to pass the imperial examination.

This time, the number of selected Juren would increase threefold, and the poor scholars would be so happy.

Their chance to pass the imperial examination has come.

It’s Enke again this time, and they will have another chance in two years.

The poor scholar was overjoyed, but the corrupt officials were in despair.

The current emperor means to get to the bottom of this matter!
Originally they all thought that if they found out that there was no one available, that was enough.

After all, there are too many officials in the court. If 70% to 80% of them are eliminated, there will not be enough Jinshi and Juren to replace them.

Is it possible to let a scholar serve as an official of the eighth or even seventh rank?
This is unlikely.

Therefore, most corrupt officials still have a hope in their hearts, thinking that if the current emperor finds that there is no one left to investigate, he will not be able to continue the investigation.

Who would have thought that the current emperor would resort to such a trick and directly hold a special provincial examination!

Once the special provincial examination began, even the upright officials could not bear it.

The reason why they dared to play the same game with Wanli was that they took advantage of the fact that Wanli had no one to use at the moment.

If we deal with them when there is no one else available, there will be a large number of vacancies among officials in the court and the country.

Things were different once the provincial examination began. This time, there were as many as four or five thousand selected candidates.

Moreover, there is no shortage of officials above the fifth rank. The imperial party plus old-established aristocrats or retired officials are enough to fill the vacancies above the fifth rank.

What is lacking now are officials below the fifth rank, and officials below the fifth rank are all eligible to be juren.

In other words, once these four or five thousand candidates are selected, Wanli can deal with them.

At this point, the Qingliu officials submitted memorials in reply, surrendering themselves and begging for mercy, fearing that if they submitted their memorials too late, Wanli would really punish them.

In the court, Donglinna also stopped his movements and became obedient.

After Wanli suppressed the Qingliu, good things followed.

Early in the morning at about noon that day, he had just come to the imperial study with little Zhu Changxun in his arms and sat down when Shen Li walked in with a stack of memorials in his hands, his face full of joy.

After the emperor and his ministers exchanged greetings, Wanli could not help but ask, "Zhonghua, is there any great news?"

There is indeed a big happy event this time.

Shen Li bowed and presented the memorial, his face full of joy, saying: "Your Majesty, Zixian and Zijin have submitted a memorial stating that the Nurgan Regional Administration's wasteland reclamation efforts have begun to show results.

Each of the more than three million military households reclaimed twenty mu of land, adding up to over sixty million mu, and they also planted a lot of fruits and vegetables."

It turned out to be good news from the Nurgan Regional Command.

Wanli took the memorials and opened the top one, and couldn't help but smile.

Xu Guangqi and Wang Xiangjin are indeed rare talents.

They all tried to grow corn, wheat, sweet potatoes, potatoes, etc. in Nurgandusi.

Moreover, each garrison soldier household had cleared twenty mu of wasteland and planted grain there, and the seedlings were growing quite well. This might be the reason why they had waited until now to submit the memorial.

Because it is not enough to just clear the wasteland and plant crops. If the crop seedlings cannot survive, then the land is planted in vain.

There will be no problem if the grain seedlings grow well. This means more than 60 million mu of land. Based on the output of the black soil there, it will be at least 18 million dan of grain.

In other words, after this year's autumn harvest, the grain there will be enough to feed more than three million garrison households for more than a year and a half.

Next year they will begin full-scale grain planting, and by next autumn the grain production there will exceed 300 million shi.

At that time, he would not be the one to pay to buy food to feed the garrison troops there, but the garrison troops there would sell the food to supply the entire Ming Dynasty.

There are also cabbages, sweet potatoes, potatoes, etc. The vegetable fields of the garrison soldiers over there are also full of them, and the cabbages are almost grown.

As for sweet potatoes and potatoes, he also specifically asked the garrison troops there to collect all the leftover fish bones, pork bones, sheep bones, etc. and make bone meal as fertilizer. It is estimated that the output will increase significantly.

Now, there is no shortage of vegetables over there, enough to raise pigs next year.

After reading it, Wanli nodded with satisfaction and said, "Well, Zixian and Zijin are both very good. They have made great achievements and should be rewarded according to the law.

How about this? You should immediately issue a letter to promote Zixian and Zijin to the position of Doctor of the Ministry of Revenue, and reward them each with 10,000 taels of silver."

what?
Xu Guangqi and Wang Xiangjin were pure new scholars who had been in the officialdom for less than a year, but they were directly promoted to the fifth rank of Langzhong of the Ministry of Revenue!

Also, there is no precedent for rewarding 10,000 taels of silver. Officials can be promoted if they make achievements, there is no need to reward them with silver.

Shen Li was stunned for a moment when he heard this, but he still bowed and said, "I understand. I will do it right away."

After saying that, he retreated carefully.

Seeing this, little Zhu Changxun couldn't help but excitedly said, "Father, there are so many fertile fields being opened up in Nurgandusi. When can we go take a look?"

What's so good about that? Can we just go and look at the ground and see if flowers will grow there?
You just want to play.

Wanli shook his head slightly and said, "We are currently purging corrupt officials. We have to stay in the capital. We can't go to the Nurgan Dusi this year."

Can't go this year?
Little Zhu Changxun sighed helplessly and said, "Father, when will these corrupt officials be completely cleansed?"

You're thinking too simply.

Wanli shook his head slightly, then patiently taught: "Xun'er, there is no end to the cleansing of corrupt officials.

You must remember this, because everyone is greedy, and there will always be people who cannot control their greed.

Especially for officials who hold power, money is readily available to them, and there will be more people who cannot control their greed.

Punishing corrupt officials is a long-term process. It's not something that can be done in one go. It's almost impossible to completely eradicate corrupt officials. Once you relax even a little, corrupt officials will pop up like mushrooms after rain."

Can’t we clean up all the corrupt officials?
Is there really no way to completely eradicate it?
Upon hearing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

Wanli also sat there and began to think.

Now the territory of the Ming Dynasty is so large that he can hardly manage it.

These days he has been taking care of affairs in the court and has no time to take care of matters elsewhere.

At least he sent two capable officials to the Nurgan Regional Administration to develop the area, but he had no time to take care of the Dongyang Regional Administration at all.

He even left the American side directly to Zhu Guozuo and Li Guozhu. The war was about to begin, and he still didn't know the specific situation there.

This definitely won't work. As the saying goes, knowing yourself and your enemy ensures victory in every battle. How can you just start fighting without knowing the situation on your side?
Maybe we should ask Zhu Guozuo to come back and talk about the situation over there.

This war cannot be fought randomly, he has to send someone to command the army.

Also, communication is a big problem.

If he continues at the current rate, even if the fighting starts over there, he will still have to wait at least three or four months before receiving any news.

As for the battle situation, it is very likely that we will have to wait for more than half a year before receiving any news.

Because the current route to the Americas is a large one-way circle, and there is only one fleet running this route.

Is it possible to fight like this?
What if something goes wrong over there?
He was just pondering this when Li Xuancheng suddenly poked his head in and said, "Your Majesty, there's news from the Mountain Resort that the steam engine prototype is ready."

Has the steam engine prototype been built?

This is a great thing. Once steamships are invented, we won't have to rely on ocean currents and monsoons for one-way navigation. It will probably take less than a month to communicate with America.

More importantly, after the steamship came out, they were able to develop tower ships and gunboats.

The reason why they haven't made tower ships and gunboats yet is because of the power problem.

They either don't build tower ships or gunboats, or they build those that are at least 2,000 tons in weight. Otherwise, they can't mount many guns, and they are not much stronger than the 2,000-ton Fujian ship warships, so there is not much point in making them.

The problem is that a giant ship weighing more than 2,000 tons must be equipped with at least a hundred cannons and hundreds of soldiers, plus ammunition, food, fresh water, etc. It is unknown how many centipede ships are needed to pull it.

In other words, sailing warships are actually not suitable for use as tower ships and gunboats. If the wind direction is wrong, the tower ships and gunboats will stall.

If they develop sail-powered tower ships and gunboats, they are actually wasting time. They might as well use that time to develop more battleships.

Moreover, once the steam engine is developed, they will definitely convert it into steam-driven tower ships and gunboats.

Therefore, he did not order people to develop sail-powered warships and gunboats.

He was just waiting for the steam engine.

Now the steam engine has finally been developed.

Steam engines can also be used to make spinning machines, looms, processing machinery, and even trains, cars, farming machinery, etc.

This time, the Ming Dynasty is likely to develop rapidly.

Wanli thought about it carefully, and then said decisively: "Uncle, quickly let General Shan prepare, and we will go to the Summer Palace to take a look."

(End of this chapter)