In the apology form to Su Yonglin, Kong Zheng fully admitted his mistakes.
He fully admitted that he had made mistakes due to his lack of political experience, and that his lack of strict control had caused trouble to the emperor. Therefore, he apologized to the emperor and begged the emperor to give him a lighter punishment for the sake of his hard work and hard work.
Looking at the memorial written by Kong Zheng, Zhou Jiang showed a look of sadness on his face.
"Is this okay? Take the initiative to plead guilty and take all the blame. It is obviously not our fault, it is those people who made their own decisions, but we still have to admit it. Isn't it too much?"
"You, I think you don't understand at all."
Kong Zheng shook his head and said: "We ourselves know that we are innocent, and His Majesty also knows in his heart that we are innocent, but who outsiders will think that we are innocent? Is it good for us to forcefully quibble? Since we have made a mistake, it is better to admit it directly and beg for mercy. Your Majesty also So we can go down the steps and give us a way to survive."
"That's it."
Zhou Jiang sighed.
"Just learn something. What we are facing now is an emperor who is different from any emperor in the past. As his close minister, there is always something to learn. If you don't learn anything or grow, you just want to gain glory and wealth." , it’s too beautiful to think about, by the way, come with me, you also come to the table to apologize with me, it means that we are not strict, so we take the initiative to apologize."
Zhou Jiang thought for a while, nodded, and wrote an apology form along with Kong Zheng.
The two of them had a tacit understanding and handed over their melodies without calling Yelujin.
As expected, Su Yonglin then only fined Kong Zheng and Zhou Jiang five months' salary, two months more than what he had punished Zhao Zuoliang. They were raised high and put down gently.
None of Kong Zheng's cronies were punished, except for those who were dismissed from office, that is, Kong Zheng and Zhou Jiang were fined five months' salary.
Yelujin did not submit a confession form, but he himself was not guilty of any crime.
When many people came forward to oppose Su Yonglin's reform plan, he clearly sided with Su Yonglin and refused to deal with Kong Zheng and Zhou Jiang. This was something everyone knew, so there was no need for him to apologize.
The storm just passed.
The Shandong scholar group was completely unaware of their embarrassing situation and weak strength in the new dynasty, and rashly launched a self-righteous struggle.
In Su Yonglin's view, the significance of this struggle is really very small. If it were not for Zhao Zuoliang to earn some political capital and accumulate some political prestige, he would not care at all about those idiots who are asking for trouble and just go ahead and fight. Get down on those guys and let them know how powerful the Human Emperor's Iron Fist is.
They have no military power, no financial power, and no personnel power. They have no power to control the direction of the political situation. How short-sighted they dare to launch a political offensive rashly?
In other words, they have just entered the state and have not yet clearly understood the nature of political struggle.
However, Su Yonglin is already very gentle to them now.
These guys dared to fight against the emperor's core interests with a little manpower and material resources. If he hadn't considered that killing people shouldn't be done when a new dynasty was established and surrounded by foreign enemies, Su Yonglin would have thought of killing them as a warning to others.
The Lao Zhao family treats scholars well and does not kill anyone, but I am not the Lao Zhao family.
My surname is not Zhao.
The old Zhao family didn't have the confidence to go on a killing spree, but I was different.
This world was brought down bit by bit by Su Yonglin and his followers with the Ming army. It was they who worked together to take it back from the hands of the Jin people.
It was taken back with absolute force.
If there is no confidence in this, what is the confidence?
The imperial examination reform plan and the education reform plan became the first two reform plans proposed by Su Yonglin after he ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, which fully demonstrated the importance Su Yonglin attached to education and examination issues.
After the two plans were initially confirmed, a consensus of opinion was reached within the imperial court.
So Su Yonglin took the lead in announcing the new reform plan for the imperial examination.
He made public the concept of selecting scholars by dividing them into four subjects: arts, science, law, and engineering, and stated that the concept of selecting scholars would be based on this concept starting from the first imperial examination in March of the second year of Hongwu.
And in principle, all people with registered residence in the Ming Empire can register to take the imperial examinations in the Ming Empire as long as they pay taxes on time and have no criminal records.
No recommendation is required and there are no identity restrictions.
Moreover, the imperial examination was completely conducted using the name-blinding method, inheriting this advantage of the imperial examination in the Song Dynasty.
Candidates selected in the four subjects of arts, science, law and engineering will be selected and become Jinshi in their respective subjects, and will become court officials in the future.
The selection of scholars by subject is only based on different specialties. The status of Jinshi in the four subjects of liberal arts, science, law and engineering is the same and there is no difference. Therefore, there is no such thing as the status of Jinshi in liberal arts is higher than that of the other three subjects.
Su Yonglin publicly stated that because the imperial court's demand for professional talents surged and the Ming Empire was just established, there were not enough manpower and material resources to conduct the third-level examination, so the imperial examination in the second year of Hongwu was only held in Zhongdu, and the winner or loser was determined by the first test.
Therefore, private candidates who have expertise in these four subjects and are confident in themselves can start to gather in Zhongdu to prepare for the exam in March next year.
At the same time as announcing the news, Su Yonglin also announced the range of test questions for the four subjects and made all the books needed for the exam public.
Regardless of whether it is late or not, whether it is reading some of these books, whether it is cramming, or whether it is sharpening one's skills before the battle, as long as one does not cheat and can pass the exam, the court will definitely accept him.
In addition, Su Yonglin also stipulated a special clause - the special talent examination regulations.
This special talent examination provision is mainly used for engineering subjects.
For those outstanding craftsmen who have mastered exquisite skills but are illiterate themselves, they can also sign up to take the civil engineering examination, and there will be dedicated personnel in charge.
They can use their skills to take exams. Once they pass the exam and are proven to be useful to the country and the people, they can be awarded [the same origin as Jinshi], be awarded official positions in the Ministry of Industry, and be appointed.
This regulation is the first time since the beginning of the world.
The national examination actually allows illiterate people to participate. After the news was announced, it aroused heated discussions among many people.
The practice of obtaining scholars by subject was something that happened a long time ago, and the sudden revival was enough to arouse heated discussions. Now there is a new rule that even illiterate people can take the imperial examination.
This is really strange.
There was a lot of discussion among the people about this, but the officials were unexpectedly quiet about it.
No wonder they were all frightened by Su Yonglin's little show of strength.
The Shandong faction did not dare to speak out, and the other three factions would not speak out, so the matter was settled.
It is true that Su Yonglin's regulations are helpless.
The literate population is very rare these days, and the imperial examination is aimed at the literate population. The entire Ming Dynasty has a population of more than 50 million, and there are many people who can read a basketful of large characters.
But there are not many educated people who can actually read and write.
After Su Yonglin conducted a thorough investigation, he learned that this part of the literate population with the ability to read and write only accounted for only five percent of the total population of the Ming Dynasty.
This is pretty good.
In recent years, printing and papermaking technologies have matured, and the cost of literacy has been greatly reduced. It is no longer possible for a wealthy family to monopolize knowledge. This is one of the prerequisites.
The Song Dynasty paid much more attention to schools and education than the rulers of the previous dynasties. The Jin Dynasty inherited the Song Dynasty system and also developed many local schools. There were many government-run schools in the local areas, and ordinary people also had the possibility to receive education. This was a prerequisite of two.
Out of the actual needs of production and life, ordinary people will also take the initiative to seek ways to understand some words and have a need for literacy to avoid being deceived by the government in terms of taxation and service. This is the third prerequisite.
Only when these three conditions are met can the number of people who are not blind increase and the literacy rate of the entire society make a huge leap. Compared with the previous dynasties before the Tang, Sui and Sui Dynasties, this is indeed a considerable improvement.
This does not mean that the literate population has increased significantly.
Su Yonglin believes that the true definition of a literate population should be a population that has the ability to read and write, rather than a semi-illiterate population that can recognize a few large characters and can barely read government notices.
But among all the people who can read in the Ming Dynasty, this kind of semi-illiterate is the most numerous.
