The night was deep, and the night wind from Luoshui rustled the flowers and trees in the imperial garden. The lights in the side hall of Tongming Hall were brilliant, as bright as day.
There were more than 20 high-ranking officials sitting on both sides of the hall, including Menxia Province Nayan Yang Yue, Neishi Province Magistrate Xiao Jue, Yushi Dafu Zhang Heng, Shangshu Zuopushe Yang Da, Shangshu Youpushe Gao Jiong, and Minister of History Niu. Hong, Yang Wensi, the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Yu Wenbi, the Minister of Rites, Duan Wenzhen, the Minister of the Ministry of War, Li Yuantong, the Minister of the Criminal Ministry, Yu Wenkai, the Minister of the Ministry of Industry, Yuan Shou, the Minister of Taifu Temple, Sun Chi, the Minister of Sinong Temple, Zhao Chuo, the Minister of Dali Temple, Li Changya, the minister of Taipu Temple, Yang Xiu, minister of Zongzheng Temple, Yao Junsu, minister of Weiwei Temple, Chen Xiaoyi, minister of Guanglu Temple, Pei Yun, minister of Taichang Temple, Xu Shanxin, minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Li Ziquan, minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs , Minister of Civil Affairs Yang Gongren, Minister of Rites Wei Shikang, Minister of Punishment Dugu Shun, Imperial College Sacrifice Wine He Tuo, Imperial College Superintendent Bo Yangtan, Secretary Cheng Cui, Secretary Secretary Liu Pin, etc... In addition, there is also Su Wei, the prime minister, and Solvay's half-real and half-virtual officials.
Emperor Yang Guang has not yet arrived, and everyone is sitting together talking about it. According to the servant of the Changqiu Prison who carried the message, the emperor convened this emergency meeting mainly because of an accident in this year's National Examination. The policy topics of the National Examination were suddenly leaked, causing the whole city to panic. Everyone knows.
In response to this matter, some officials believe that the leakage of the questions is an irreversible fact. The top priority is to reset the test questions to make the national exam a complete success. Those who leak the questions will be investigated and severely punished in accordance with the law.
Some other officials also advocated changing the questions, but they believed that they should investigate first and punish before testing. Otherwise, the next questions would be leaked.
Others believe that the leak is a huge scandal in the court, and it is difficult to determine who is leaking the leak. If a large-scale investigation is launched, but no results can be found, then the entire court will be embarrassed.
Since everyone knows the questions, let's just make the mistakes and let the scholars take the test with two questions. Moreover, the scope of policy questions is too large, and the scholars will not be able to test their true level in a hurry. If they are prepared, You might get an unexpected surprise.
In addition to leaking the questions, there are two other things. First, when the emperor was looking through the state examination papers, he found that the famous children in the A list did not do well in the exam, but the poor children in the B list generally did well in the exam; second, in the upcoming exam, In the national examination conducted, the number of candidates in the B list was 15 times as many as in the A list.
Based on these two things, the emperor decided to expand the number of admissions to the B list by fifteen times, instead of the previously set number of A and B.
The emperor's decision caused more intense debates among ministers than the previous one, and the differences were far greater than the former: supporters believed that the admission decision based on the number of students was very fair. Moreover, the scores of the candidates in the second list were generally good. If the results were based on the previous It is a great injustice to the B list candidates to admit them based on the number.
Opponents, however, insist that the previous rankings of A and B are the same. That is to say, it is not impossible to expand the number of students, but both lists must be expanded, not based on the number of students.
Everyone couldn't argue, so they had to wait for the emperor to make a decision. While waiting, the important ministers present silently tried to figure out the emperor's thoughts: when they combined the two incidents of the students from a famous family not doing as well as the poor scholars and the leak of the policy topic, they knew that the emperor suspected that officials from aristocratic families were up to something, and their purpose was to bring trouble to the emperor. One of my own children cheated, but I don’t know which child spread the policy discussion topic, so it became known to the whole city.
The emperor was obviously angry and responded by expanding the number of places on the second list. Well, maybe it's not anger, but excitement to use the topic to expand the quota.
All the ministers had similar thoughts and stopped talking, each thinking of countermeasures. In the silence, Gao Jun asked Yang Xiu, who was the first to arrive: "Does the King of Shu know what the saint has considered regarding these matters?" When everyone heard this, they all looked at Yang Xiu.
"Your Excellency!" Yang Xiu stood up and saluted: "In terms of leaking questions, the sage means that while changing the topic, the Yushitai, the Ministry of Punishment, Dali Temple, and Henan Prefecture will investigate the person who leaked the topic. Only if he is brought to justice and severely punished can he serve as a warning to others. Otherwise, others will follow his example in the future." Gao Jiong nodded silently. In fact, this was what he insisted on, and he also believed that the issue of leaking the topic had already caused trouble. There was such an uproar that the imperial court could not stop the public from talking, not to mention that the whole capital was waiting for the imperial court's action. Instead of being secretive and disappointing, the imperial court would rather openly admit that someone deliberately leaked the issue.
As long as the court brings the leaker to justice and gives an explanation to the scholars and the people of the world, then not only will the reputation of the court not be damaged because of the lawless people, but because of the actions of punishing people in accordance with the law, the world will see that the court is governed by the law. The official’s determination and will.
If the imperial court did not investigate and execute lawless people, but blindly suppressed public opinion and blindly used another
"Hotspot" replaces the old
"Hot spots", people all over the world must think that the officials at the top and bottom of the court are all working together, and then lose confidence in the court.
Over time, people all over the world will be indifferent to any future decisions of the imperial court, thinking that this is another one-man show played by a small group of people, fooling and toying with the people.
After listening to Yang Xiu's words, Su Wei's face was calm, but his heart was extremely bitter. He just made up two random test questions that were close to the current situation. His purpose was just to take advantage of the situation to suppress the situation.
"The dispute between Solvay and Yang Ji", so that the two sides can have a good atmosphere for cooperation, but unexpectedly they guessed the topic of the policy discussion right at once.
But fortunately, he didn't know what the policy topic was. If he continued to investigate seriously, he didn't know who would be unlucky.
Thinking of this, I couldn't help but look at He Tuo, who was offering the imperial wine, and He Tuo was also looking at him. As soon as their eyes met in the air, they both seemed to be burned, and then they both turned away, thinking One jump.
Old thief Su\/Is the bastard Hu planning to harm me again? Must be\/be careful!
"Thank you, King Shu, for clearing up the confusion!" The moment Su He's eyes met, Gao Jiong bowed his hand to Yang Xiu and asked, "What about the quota? What did the saint think about it?" When there was a dispute over interests in the court, everyone Pai Lao usually doesn't end up easily. Many things are determined by
"Advocates" do the work on your behalf,
The results won by the "spokespersons" will not affect the relationship between the elders in the future. As the distributor of the interests of all parties, the emperor should not go into battle shirtless.
Naturally there are many "him" in the court
"Spokesperson". Yang Xiu is playing Yang Guang right now
The role of “spokesperson” plays a role in Yang Guang’s
Before arriving "for some reason", he was responsible for instilling Yang Guang's thoughts so that everyone could be mentally prepared.
After listening to Gao Juong's question, he immediately replied: "The establishment of the Xihai Protectorate and the Andong Protectorate, as well as the arrest of a large number of corrupt officials, have resulted in a serious shortage of officials and reserve officials. And the states, counties, and Although schools in various counties are slowly being established, many schools lack PhDs to teach."
"Based on the shortage of officials and doctors, there were too many candidates for the second list but few places. The saint decided to expand the number of candidates for the second list according to the proportion of candidates. Once the candidates were hired, they would supplement the local government and schools at all levels." This explanation was more popular in the minds of the ministers. agreed.
In particular, many officials from aristocratic families supported the idea of using B-list candidates to supplement schools in various places.
To put it bluntly, they all look down upon the position of teaching doctorate: the mission of this position is to teach and educate people, which seems very noble and great, but it cannot be judged on real political achievements, and it also requires long-term and deep cultivation of the local area.
And their children have many opportunities to enter officialdom and have a high starting point. If they become a local doctorate, it will obviously be a waste of the family's interpersonal relationships and resources, and it will obviously be a waste of their children's time and youth.
However, the imperial court needs a large number of talents to teach doctorates, so if they oppose the expansion of the number of admissions to the second list, the emperor is likely to send their children to a remote mountainous area where there is no shit and constant war to teach doctorates.
After taking a look at everyone, Gao Jun asked again: "Did the saint say how many people were admitted?" Yang Xiu said: "The number of people admitted to the A list remains unchanged, or one hundred people; while the number of people admitted to the B list is based on the needs of the world's schools. , can be increased to two to three thousand people." There was an uproar in the hall, and the number of people on the second list increased from one hundred to two to three thousand. Isn't this too incredible?
While everyone was discussing, Su Wei asked Li Ziquan: "Prime Minister Li, do you think the gap between local government and schools is really that big?" Li Ziquan shook his head and said, "The imperial court only has the power to appoint people in the county left. At each level, county officials are recruited and appointed by the local government themselves. No matter how few local officials and teaching doctors are, there will not be two to three thousand people. Unless the emperor wants to take back the power of appointing officials to the court, but Does Su Xiang think it’s possible?”
"It's simply impossible." Su Wei categorically denied: "This is not a question of whether it can be done, but impracticality! The late emperor had to give up many of his good strategies for governing the country and officials because they were unrealistic and inconsistent with the actual situation. Not being allowed to serve in this county, and not being allowed to serve in the same county with people of the same clan is a typical example." When the late emperor reorganized the system, he adopted the late Yang Shangxi, Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
The proposal of "retaining and eliminating idle, and merging large and eliminating small" has eliminated more than 500 counties and thousands of counties, and eliminated more than 500 county-level officials and thousands of county-level officials. This move has saved a lot of money. A large amount of expenditure has improved work efficiency and also greatly reduced the burden on the people.
In order to better control the local area, the late emperor abolished the bad habit of local officials appointing left officials on their own, and returned the appointment power of officials above the ninth rank to the central government, and the appointment power of officials was all controlled by the Ministry of Personnel.
This method is naturally excellent and can be said to be far-sighted and long-term, but this method is too
"Advanced" is seriously inconsistent with the actual situation of the Sui Dynasty. For example, the rank of the Cao Cao in the lower county is the lowest, from the ninth rank, and their annual salary is two shi meters. To appoint, these officials will have to stay away from home.
But for officials from the ninth rank down, the two stones of rice cannot even support themselves, let alone their families. Who is willing to stay away from home and become a small official with no future and starve to death?
It is precisely based on these inviolable realities that the late emperor later relaxed restrictions and recruited county leftists on the spot. Even some county magistrates and county leftists were recruited on the spot, while the imperial court only took care of the roster and the law.
Since even high-level officials cannot be appointed in other places due to reality, let alone teaching doctors and junior officials.
It was impossible for the emperor not to know this truth, so Su Wei immediately realized that Yang Xiu was lying. The emperor's intention in expanding enrollment was not to recruit PhD students, but to use a large number of poor people to attack the sparse number of children from aristocratic families.
If these two to three thousand humble scholars become reserve officials of the Sui Dynasty, those outstanding humble scholars will surely take over a large number of vacancies.
But if some people jump out to object, the emperor will 100% let some people's children become teaching doctors.
So this is a very shameless and hateful conspiracy that cannot be solved. From this, Su Wei smelled Yang Ji's scent again. He felt that this kind of method could only be thought up by Yang Ji, who liked to play tricks.
Li Ziquan didn't think so. He also saw through the nature of this conspiracy, and also thought it was related to Yang Ji. He sighed, smiled bitterly and said to Su Wei: "I'm afraid Su Xiang is a little too optimistic. You These things can actually be solved with money." Su Wei has been thinking about his own family affairs these days and is exhausted mentally and physically for his family. Before he realized it, he immediately asked: "Oh? What are you saying? Answer?" Seeing that he didn't understand, Li Ziquan reminded: "Xiang Su, Liangzhou has a policy called 'high salary to support integrity' and a policy called 'employment scientific examination'. I think the sage is very likely to introduce it. Center." Su Wei thought about the topic and immediately understood.
"High salary to support integrity" is to use high salary to solve the worries of low-level officials, so that they can leave their hometown and work in other places without fear, and they will not have to embark on the road of crime due to lack of money during their tenure.
"In-service scientific examination" means that county left-wing officials and petty officials who have outstanding talents but do not want to accumulate them step by step can be promoted through the examination. If this person has outstanding political achievements, a good reputation, and good test scores, he will be given priority. Serve as an official, get hired beyond the next level; if you don't win the exam, you can still go back to work as a county clerk.
Once the two are combined, the county leftists and petty officials will have no worries and a shortcut for promotion. After they see the hope of a new leader, they all want to take the exam as a shortcut to achieve promotion. They not only do their job faithfully, but also work hard. He does his job well and is very honest.
These two policies are good ways to directly target people's hearts. They may be immature and have many loopholes and irrationality, but they are very consistent with the emperor's need to weaken famous families and make more use of poor people - because the children of famous families have There are many shortcuts to enter the official career, so most people would rather wait for a vacancy than work as a clerk in a remote area.
What the Han scholars lack is a way to enter the official career. Once they become teaching doctors, county leftists, and petty officials, and they have done well and made no mistakes during their tenure, it will be equivalent to a new starting point.
After that, the poor people who have completed their education can take the exam again and compete with the children of the aristocratic families based on their real qualifications.
Although a famous family can help its children achieve great fame, compared with real qualifications, fame is all false.
In a flash of thought, Su Wei, who had already understood, sighed sadly. If the emperor introduces this two-system system into the central government, then the system for rank officials will
The policy of "not allowed to serve in this county, and not allowed to serve in the same county with people of the same clan" can be implemented, and the integrity of the entire Sui Dynasty officialdom will also be improved due to
The hope of "shortcuts to promotion" is far greater than it is now. As for the second list, if more poor people are admitted this time, there will naturally be more officials from poor families who can be selected and promoted next time.
