"Young Supervisor Li, since no one objects, let's move on to the next issue!" Seeing that the two issues raised previously were passed, Yang Guang ordered the Young Supervisor Li Yuan in the palace.
"I obey!" Li Yuan first saluted Yang Guang and then said to the ministers in the palace: "The following is the third topic. This topic was raised by Niu Shangshu of the Ministry of Personnel: Since the opening of the imperial examination to recruit scholars, the imperial court has indeed attracted many outstanding people. Talents, but most of the talents who participated in the scientific examination and were admitted by the court were northern scholars, but there were very few southerners. The reason was mainly due to high mountains and long roads, inconvenient transportation, weather changes, poor publicity, etc., while many southern scholars Because of the above factors, the scholars either did not know that the imperial court held the scientific examination, or were delayed on the road. When they rushed to the capital to take the examination, they either missed the examination time or were not accustomed to the climate, which affected the normal performance of the southern scholars. In the end, the examination Not as good as it should be.”
"Niu Shangshu believes that this will not achieve the effect of meritocracy and meritocracy, and it is also unfair to scholars in remote counties and counties. He suggested that the imperial court set up a test center in each of the fourteen states this year. All scholars, regardless of high or low, You can participate in the scientific examination nearby. In order to prevent bad incidents such as leaking questions in advance and preventing candidates from bribery of invigilators, the scientific examination will follow the example of Liangzhou in the future: that is, the chief and deputy examiners are temporarily appointed by the court. The chief and deputy examiners are not allowed to do anything before the exam. Disclosing one's whereabouts to court officials and not being allowed to have contact with officials and candidates in the place where the exam is invigilated. If anyone violates this order, it will be regarded as helping the candidates to cheat. In addition to the person himself having to bear corresponding responsibilities, he will be punished by his descendants, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Three generations are not allowed to serve as officials or generals.”
"The test questions will be escorted by the Censor's Office and the Ministry of War officials. No one else is allowed to touch the test questions before the official examination. Otherwise, it will be regarded as stealing the questions and will be punished as treason. Until the examination room, the Censor's officials, chief and deputy examiners, The local officials publicly checked that the seals were intact and that the seals were in perfect position. They believed that the test questions had not been opened. Otherwise, they would be considered to have been opened privately by the imperial censor and the Ministry of War officials on the road, and they would be punished as "question stealers." The candidates will all use the lake name system; after the examination is completed and the papers are sealed, a group of people sent by the imperial court will be sent to the capital. After the results are evaluated, the lake name seal will be broken and the candidates' scores will be announced."
The above are the anti-cheating methods implemented by Yang Ji and others in Liangzhou. Although it cannot be said that there are no loopholes to exploit, they are already very clever methods for the current Sui Dynasty; especially the intensity of punishment. It's so big that officials are intimidated and don't dare to try the law themselves.
There is actually nothing to argue about this issue. The main reason is that these important officials and their families have long since come to their senses. They now think like Su Wei, Gao Jun, Pei Ju and other wise men at the time, who all thought that their family had everything. Advantages, relying on the family's profound family tradition, cultural inheritance, and excellent learning conditions, even if it is a fair and just examination, the children of the poor family will not be able to pass the examination of their own children.
As for the competition among aristocratic families in the imperial examinations, it actually began as early as the seventh year of the founding of the Emperor. Yang Jian established a subject-based examination system to replace the ninth grade Zhongzheng. From then on, officials were selected regardless of their origin and family status. Initially, Yang Jian stipulated that Each state (county) selects three children from poor families to the imperial court to come to the center to take part in the exams for scholars and Ming Jingke together with children from aristocratic families who enjoy the privileges of self-recommendation, recommendation, and family influence.
Then Yang Jian worked step by step, gradually increasing the number of Hanshi to five, seven, and ten people... But generally speaking, after taking the exams one after another, the candidates eventually became the children of aristocratic families competing, just because Hanshi was a real person. If you fail the exam, you won't win the exam. And this is one of the important 'examples' and 'basis' for them to no longer reject the imperial examination.
Another important reason is that in the face of temptations such as official position, power, money, beauty, etc., children from poor families fall faster than children from noble families and aristocratic families; if your own children really cannot pass the exam, then those children from poor families who pass the exam will Collect them for your own use and make them your own.
In this way, cultivating humble scholars in the officialdom is actually far more secretive, safer, and more subtle than cultivating one's own children! But they are very smart. In order to prevent the emperor from noticing, to make the emperor happy, and to make the emperor feel that they have won, they will try their best to put on a bad face whenever they talk about this kind of thing.
The so-called Tao is one foot high and the devil is one foot high. This is true!
At the same time, the civil and military ministers who expressed bitterness and hatred were mainly thinking about the two issues just now. Judging from the attitudes of the saint and Yang Ji just now, it is very likely that they will have to deal with the Huanghuai officialdom along the Tongji Canal. The knife was used. Many quick-thinking ministers are even considering how to get people from their own faction to leave and how to fill the loopholes.
Seeing that this topic was somewhat quiet, Yang Guang asked: "Gentlemen, the imperial examination involves officials from various states and counties, and is closely related to many ministries and departments of the imperial court. If you have any different opinions, you can put them forward. This can avoid the occurrence of fraud to the greatest extent."
"Reporting to the sage, I have no objections! After all, this law has been implemented in Liangzhou for many years. From now on, there are no loopholes to find or exploit." Su Wei glanced at Yang Ji and then said to Yang Guang : "Of course, the main reason is that this issue came too suddenly, and everyone is not mentally prepared at all now. Can we discuss it again tomorrow and the day after tomorrow?"
Hearing this, other people also agreed.
If you want to do a play, you have to do everything. If you agree rashly without the slightest doubt, what will the saint think? Doesn't it mean that the expressions on their faces are all deceiving?
"Okay, as Su Xiangguo said, we will discuss the imperial examination in three days." Yang Guang nodded. As he said before, Liangzhou is just a state after all. It is easy to implement any policy or plan, but if it is enlarged to The entire Great Sui Dynasty still needs a thorough plan, otherwise, the disaster of martial arts is likely to happen again. He thought for a while and then asked Yang Ji: "King Wei, do you have anything to say about preventing cheating?"
"No matter how good the system is, there are loopholes that can be exploited, but for now, Liangzhou has gone to the extreme, and Liangzhou officials cannot change or fix it. For the remaining loopholes, either hope The court officials should make up for it, or they should make up for it one by one when they discover it." Yang Ji continued: "I think the main thing is to implement the punishment in place. Only by making all the officials in charge of the scientific examination realize that they help others cheat. The disaster affects three generations, so they don’t dare to leak questions and help candidates cheat for a small profit.”
There is no best system in the world, only the most suitable system. Besides, Yang Ji is not an encyclopedia, so how can he know everything? Fortunately, there were relatively few examination subjects in this era, and the content was mainly liberal arts; and policy analysis, which accounted for the largest proportion of points and was most valued by the court, was equivalent to writing essays discussing political gains and losses, criticizing current ills, and making suggestions. As long as the court strictly prevented officials from leaking information in advance, Most people can't cheat.
Yang Guang also understood that Liangzhou had done its best. Judging from their scientific research in the past few years, there was indeed no "scandal"; the rest could only be handed over to court officials as Yang Ji said. Tackled up the omissions. Then he said to all the generals: "If a country wants to prosper, it must be assisted by talented people. However, many methods of selecting talents in the previous dynasty were extremely flawed. As a result, outstanding children from aristocratic families and outstanding children from poor families could not make full use of their talents, and they had no ambition to serve the country. It is a pity that even though he has great talent, he has no way to serve the country. Therefore, the military and imperial examinations are based on meritocracy and merit, and all outstanding people who pass the examination, regardless of whether they are from aristocratic or poor families, will be awarded with fame. If anyone deliberately suppresses or excludes people who have real talent and knowledge but no power to rely on for their own benefit, don’t blame me for turning against them."
Su Wei quickly stood up, bowed his head to Yang Guang and said solemnly: "Sage, I, the old minister, Niu Shangshu, and Yang Shangshu will definitely go all out to successfully conduct the imperial examination."
The dispute between aristocratic families and poor families is a battle of fundamental interests. It is about strategy. Sometimes it is necessary to proceed step by step, and sometimes it is necessary to test the bottom line. It is not a life and death battle with swords and swords, advancement or retreat, but it is also necessary to fight against the emperor at this time. It's overwhelming. In this regard, Su Wei, an old fox, did a very good job. He not only advocated his own position and made the civil servants of the DPRK and the DPRK move closer to him, but also did not make the emperor unacceptable.
Yang Guang's face softened, he nodded slightly and said, "Xiang Su is the hero of the country and a hero of the empire. I believe you always put the interests of the empire first. Please take a seat!"
As the emperor, Yang Guang understood the importance of balance. He knew that aristocratic families and poor families, martial arts families and poetry and writing families, aristocratic families and aristocratic families were engaged in overt and covert fights almost every day due to different fundamental interests and conflicting interests. They could never achieve the same goal. Harmony and friendship, advancing and retreating together. Such opposition for the sake of opposition is naturally not conducive to the implementation of the court's policies and the further strengthening of the Sui Dynasty. However, for the emperor, it is an indispensable condition for maintaining the "balance" of the major political forces.
Once the civil and military, various sects, and major aristocratic families merge, the emperor will completely lose control over the world. But now, it is not just as simple as political factions fighting, there are also signs that major factions are joining forces to suppress Hanmen, an emerging force.
This sign seriously conflicts with Yang Guang's intention to get rid of his over-reliance on the talents of aristocratic families and seek to diversify talents. At the same time, it is something Yang Guang absolutely cannot allow, so he puts the ugly words up front to prevent these people from misleading others and himself. It’s even more harmful to the country.
"Thank you, saint." Su Wei bowed his hands and took his seat again. He looked back at his superiors, only to find that Yang Ji was silently sipping tea, as if the matter had nothing to do with him, without even looking at it, as if he had worked hard for it. The right to hold imperial examinations had nothing to do with him, and was even more disdainful in his eyes!
Hey, this little fox is really hypocritical.
If Yang Ji was not tempted by the government and did not seize the real power that Shangshu Ling once had, Su Wei would never believe it. He is a very greedy person for power. At this time, he uses himself to save others. He feels that Yang Ji seems so quiet about power now and has done nothing. It is not that he is really willing to be an inflated minister, but that he is the minister. The time is too short, and the time to seize power is not yet mature, but once he secures his position as Shangshu Ling, he will definitely launch a stormy attack. And this is something Solvay will never allow.
Of course, Su Wei's vigilance and hostility are not directed at Yang Ji alone. But if anyone is replaced as Shangshu Ling, he will not allow this position to be re-realized, so as not to affect his power... Unless, by He'll do it.
However, he also knew that this possibility was extremely small, even non-existent. Otherwise, after Yang Su's death, why would the saint have kept the Order of Secretaries in vain for so long? However, you must have a clear goal in life. What if something big changes one day and you are not sure whether you will become the minister with real power?
"Masters, Luoyang in the east capital took the lead in interrogating Sister Xiaoye and got some surprising news." Just as Su Wei was thinking, Yang Guang said to the ministers: "According to Luoyang The emergency report just sent states that there is indeed an 'Iwami Ginzan' in Shimane County on the Honshu Island of Japan that is rich in gold, silver and copper, and there is a 'Zuodu Island' in the north of Japan's Honshu Island that is rich in gold, silver and copper. Treasure land of gold. The stones in these two places sparkle, and when the weather is sunny, they are even more dazzling and golden. It can be seen that the Japanese country is indeed rich in gold, silver, and copper mines, as King Wei said, and they are extremely easy to mine. "
There was an uproar in the hall, and many people cast hesitant glances at Yang Ji. Yang Ji was the first person to suggest that Japan was rich in gold, silver, and copper, and he said that the place of production was very close to Baekje. If the Sui Dynasty used Baekje as a springboard, they could easily cross to the Japanese island of Honshu.
When he brought it up, almost everyone had a dubious attitude. After all, Yang Ji had never been to Japan. Judging by anecdotes alone was not convincing enough. If he hadn't indeed judged that there was gold in Qingzhou around the Bohai Bay, Mines and silver mines, and Taoist King Yang Jing had indeed found them, otherwise everyone would have dismissed them as ridiculous nonsense. However, no one expected that within a day or two, conclusive news would reach Guanzhong from the fake envoys detained in Luoyang.
Could this man really have the ability to predict the future? Otherwise, how could his knowledge of things be as it is?
Facing the pairs of eyes with different expressions, Yang Ji looked as usual, with a languid expression, but he had an intuition in his heart: that is, what Yang Guang suggested at this time was actually a drunkard's intention was not to drink, but was actually uneasy and well-intentioned. Now he is clearly using the Japanese gold and silver matter to build a platform for political struggle, allowing civil and military officials and major political factions to continue fighting over the real gold and silver of the Japanese country, so that each faction will continue to be evil for real interests.
Or it can be said that this is Yang Guang's real intention in holding this temporary court meeting, and the previous issues are actually paving the way for this issue. In addition, this matter is most likely related to the army and military operations. Otherwise, what would he do if he summoned so many generals?
